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BY  THE   SAME   AUTHOR 


The  Beautiful  and  the  Sublime.  The  Analysis  of 
the  Emotions  and  the  Determination  of  the  Ob- 
jectivity of  Beauty.     i2mo,  cloth   .         .         $1.25 

"  It  is  a  closely-reasoned  treatise,  clothed  in  graceful  sentences, 
and  is  of  chief  interest,  of  course,  to  metaphysicians.  He  is  in 
sympathy  with  Christian  truth,  and  he  applies  his  conclusions  in 
some  degree  to  art,  while  refraining  from  any  extended  develop- 
ment of  the  subject  in  that  direction." — Congregationalist. 

"  At  all  times  Dr.  Kedney  is  free  from  pedantry,  and  is  easily 
followed  in  his  clear  reasoning  on  difficult  points." — Observer. 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS,  New  York  and  London. 


Christian   Doctrine 
Harmonized 

AND 

ITS    RATIONALITY    VINDICATED 


JOHN   STEINFORT   KEDNEY,  D.D. 

PROFESSOR   OF  DIVINITY   IN  SEABURY  DIVINITY   SCHOOL;  AUTHOR   OF "  THE   BEAUTIFUL  AND  THE 
SUBLIME,"  "  HEGEL'S   .ESTHETICS,"  ETC. 


•    • 


NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 

G.   P.   PUTNAM'S    SONS 

®jxe  Jinfrktrbottar  |)r£gs 

1889 


COPYRIGHT   BY 

JOHN   STEINFORT   KEDNEY 
1889 


Press  of 

G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons 

New  York 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I — The  Extension  of  the  Results  of  the  Incar- 
nation      .......         i 

II — The  Function  of  the  Holy  Spirit         .         .       n 
III — The  Metaphysical  Elements  of  Faith  .         .       19 
IV — The  Analysis  of  Faith  as  a  Possibly  Univer- 
sal Relation,  and  the  Increments  which 
Constitute  it  Christian  Faith    ...       28 
V — The  Ground  for  the  Christian  Revelation, 

and  the  Possibility  of  Christian  Faith      .       42 

VI — Justification 54 

VII — Sanctification,  and  the  Intimations  of  the 

Christian  Church 62 

VIII — The  Doctrine  of  Providence         ...       75 
IX — The  Scheme  of  Providence  as  Extended  into 

Post-Mortal  Experience  ....       94 
X — The  Christian  Election,  as  Constituting  the 
Church — How   Related   to   the   Eternal 
Election,  or  Predestination      .         .         .     101 
XI — The  Christian  Church  as  a  Visible  Organiza- 
tion   108 

XII — Christian  Baptism 118 

XIII — Infant  Baptism 130 

XIV — The  Administration  of  Baptism  .         .         -139 
XV — The  Lord's  Supper — The  Eucharistic  Sacri- 
fice and  Feast 145 

Vol.  II.  :,-: 


iv  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XVI— Christian  Prayer 170 

XVII — Jesus'  Baptism,— The  Christian  Ministry     .  188 

XVIII — Inspiration 209 

XIX — Inspiration  of   Selected  Men, — Prelude  to 

the  Inquiry       ......  221 

XX — The  Inspiration  of  Selected  Men         .         .  229 
XXI — The  Means  of  Preserving  and  Testing  Chris- 
tian Truth, — The  Notion  of  Infallibility,  242 
XXII — Contrast  of  the  Primitive  Christian  Period 

with  the  Subsequent  Period     .         .         .  254 
XXIII— Question  as  to  the  Mode  of  the  Holy  Spirit's 

Activity, — The  Philosophy  of  Prayer      .  267 
XXIV — Eschatology, — The  Resurrection  and  Glori- 
fication of  Jesus  Christ     ....  279 

XXV— The  Intermediate  State       .         .         .         .286 

XXVI— The  Future  of  the  Election,— The  Day  of 

Judgment 303 

XXVII — Heaven, — The  Regeneration  of  the  Kxiaii  .  328 
XXVIII— The  Destiny  of  the  Morally  Evil,— Prelude 

and  Difficulties 341 

XXIX— Pure    Evil,  if  Possible,  What  its  Destiny, 

as  Speculatively  Thought         .         .         .  352 
XXX— The  Personal  Relation         .         .         .         .  363 
XXXI — Supplementary, — Argument    for   an   Opti- 
mistic Philosophy 371 

Appendix  E 385 

Index 413 


CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  EXTENSION  OF  THE    RESULTS  OF  THE  INCARNATION. 

If,  as  we  have  seen,  the  results  of  the  atoning  work 
of  Christ  are  primarily  manifested  and,  in  a  sense, 
summed  up  and  completed  in  his  person,  and  thus  is 
exhibited  the  only  possible  way  in  which  human  nature 
is  to  be  restored,  and  is  furnished  the  absolute  and  soli- 
tary method  now  remaining  for  the  realization  of  the 
human  ideal, — the  process  must  be  repeated  in  each 
individual  who  is  or  can  be  grafted  into  this  new 
stock,  and  thus  connected  with  the  fount  of  the  regen- 
erative forces.  Man's  heart,  mind,  and  body  are  to 
be  reached,  and  thus  his  will,  the  focussing  of  the 
three,  to  be  purified  and  strengthened,  and  his  perfec- 
tion ensured.  And  the  organism, — the  totality, — the 
Church,  is  to  exhibit  the  same  process,  whether  or  not 
it  be  identical  with  the  primal  human  stock,  or  a 
providential  election  from  it. 

The  story  of  Jesus  Christ  must  then  be  repeated  in 
every  Christian  disciple,  and  be  capable  of  description, 
as  was  his.  The  factors  of  this  were  :  first,  the  Di- 
vine love  or  self-limitation  showing  itself,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  contradiction  of  sin  and  its  results,  as 


2  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

sacrifice  ;  second,  human  innocence  restored  by  a  new 
creative  act,  and  a  true  human  development  springing 
from  this  new  centre,  exhibiting  and  bringing  to  pass 
the  utmost  moral  strength,  the  very  essential  fibre  of 
all  eternal  being,  and  thus  the  perfection  and  the  sub- 
limity as  well  as  the  purity  of  the  human  will ; 
third,  the  glorified  body,  or  the  reversal  of  the  present 
human  relation  to  the  universe,  the  manifested  Glory, 
and  the  ultimate  subsidence  into  the  pure  and  primal 
Glory,  in  which  new  relation  the  universe  becomes 
pliant  and  subservient,  insomuch  that  there  becomes 
possible  any  change  in  it,  or  manifestation  by  means 
of  it,  not  inconsistent  with  the  holy  will  and  the  Di- 
vine purpose  ;  and,  lastly,  the  liberated  mind,  which 
now  sinks  to  the  centre  of  thought,  sees  every  thing 
in  right  relation,  and  busies  itself  everlastingly  with 
the  infinite  riches  which  may  spring  forever  from  the 
inexhaustible  fountain. 

All  this  is,  and  is  to  be  repeated  in  Christian  expe- 
rience ;  and  in  what  manner  and  by  what  providen- 
tial provisions  we  shall  presently  show.  This  is  said 
here,  even  though  we  have  not  yet  followed  out  to 
the  full  the  results  of  Christ's  atoning  work  as  exhib- 
ited in  his  personal  history. 

For,  we  might  expect,  since  the  redemptive  act 
seems  complete,  that  immediately  after  the  passage  of 
death,  He  should  blossom  at  once  into  the  glorified 
body  and  the  perfected  mind.  Since  the  liberating 
forces  are  now  set  free,  we  might  look  to  see  them  at 
once  operative.  But  a  little  reflection  may  convince 
us  that  this  would  be  a  hasty  conclusion.  Since  we 
can  think  only  under  time  conditions,  and  the  process 
of  Jesus'  human  development  was  a  time  process,  this 


RESULTS  OF  THE  INCARNATION.  3 

part  of  his  career  cannot  be  reduced  to  a  mere  abstract 
relation,  for  the  whole  transaction  would  thus  be  re- 
moved beyond  the  sphere  of  human  imagination,  and 
no  new  motive  force  could  be  made  to  act  upon  the 
human  mind  and  will  yet  lingering  in  the  shadows. 
He  must  be  known  as  dead  ere  it  can  be  known  that 
He  has  died,  and  the  attraction  of  the  cross  be  felt. 
And  besides,  what  death  is  to  him  who  dies,  or  the 
nature  of  the  changed  relation  to  the  universe,  cannot 
be  known  as  such  but  as  contrasted  with  the  new  re- 
lation. Jesus  must  experience  this  mental  contrast, 
not  only  that  He  may  be  known  by  men  as  having 
experienced  it,  and  thus  as  having  run  through  the 
human  career,  but  as  an  essential  moment  in  his  own 
development.  He  must  not  only  know  and  sympa- 
thize with  the  human  consciousness  after  death,  what- 
ever it  may  be,  but  must  and  can  only  after  death 
experience  that  symmetrization  of  the  consciousness 
for  which  the  lifting  of  the  clouds,  the  passing  away  of 
the  brain-perturbations,  is  needful.  If  for  this  any  in- 
terval of  time  is  required,  its  extent  is  merely  a  matter 
of  economical  provision.  It  must  on  that  account, 
however,  still  be  sufficient  to  bring  it  within  the  ca- 
pacity of  human  thought,  and  enable  any  predications 
concerning-  it.  Enough  of  it  must  be  made  known 
not  to  satisfy  the  mind  merely,  but  to  gratify  the 
heart.  Christ's  Love  must  be  seen  to  extend  into  the 
interval  between  his  death  and  his  resurrection,  as 
well  as  to  have  been  displayed  before  and  after. 
These  departed  ones  He  has  not  hitherto  humanly 
known.  As  He  is  bound  up  with  them,  they  must 
come  within  the  sphere  of  his  human  mind  and  heart, 
as  the  connecting  link  whereby  they  come  within  the 


4  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

sphere  of  the  Divine  Love.  This,  we  may  say,  is  the 
first  known  result  of  the  atoning  work,  that  He  comes 
into  conscious  relation  with  the  whole  realm  of  the 
departed  and  is  active  in  his  Love  then  and  there,  as 
before  and  after. 

This  fact  of  an  intermediate  human  experience  can- 
not be  thought  away.  We  figure  heaven  as  a  place, 
for  our  own  mental  aid,  as  the  Scriptures  do  in  conde- 
scension to  human  limitations  ;  but  its  essential  idea 
and  meaning  is  the  perfected  relation  of  each  recov- 
ered soul  to  God,  to  all  other  intelligence,  and  to  the 
universe  ;  and  hence  it  can  only  be  after  bodily  glori- 
fication is  completed.  The  growth  into  the  Divine 
Glory  is  indeed  a  process,  and  it  may  appear,  on 
occasion,  through  the  earthly  obscurations,  but  it 
is  manifested  and  experienced  to  the  full  only  after 
ethical  perfection  is  reached.  The  naive  New  Testa- 
ment narratives  assure  us  that  Christ  is  not  to  be 
thought  of  as  in  the  heavenly  state  until  after  the  full 
round  of  relations  with  his  own,  which  are  to  extend 
into  the  future,  is  established.  Therefore  must  He  be 
brought  into  connection  with  the  departed,  and  there- 
fore and  thereby  confirm  the  faith  of  his  own  on  the 
earth,  in  order  to  arouse  their  enthusiasm.  All  the 
history  of  Christian  thinking  shows  that  it  is  and  ever 
was  under  time-conditions.  Even  after  the  Ascension 
and  the  day  of  Pentecost,  the  consciousness  of  the 
Apostles  is  susceptible  of  religious  improvement  and 
rectification,  and  St.  Peter  is  by  degrees  disabused  of 
his  prejudices.  Therefore  the  interval  between  Jesus' 
resurrection,  and  his  ascension  is  needed  for  the  hu- 
man wants  of  his  disciples.  Not  till  provision  is  made 
whereby  their  faith  may  be  triumphant,  can  they  be 


RESULTS  OF  THE  INCARNATION.  5 

trusted  in  the  region  of  faith,  and  all  sight  be  re- 
moved. Thus  both  for  himself,  and  to  realize  to 
the  full  his  own  loving  purpose,  were  these  intervals 
needful. 

The  reluctance,  in  some  Theologies,  to  admit 
any  such  relation  or  communication  of  Jesus,  after 
his  death,  with  the  departed  ones,  is  something 
strange,  seeing  that  it  cannot  be  thought  away 
without  violence  to  our  spiritual  instincts.  In  such 
case  we  must  think  him  after  death,  as  without  con- 
sciousness, or  as  solitary,  or  as  having  already  attained 
the  heavenly  relation  :  all  which  violates  the  Scrip- 
tures as  well.  This  reluctance  may  have  its  explana- 
tion from  the  fear  that  the  doctrine  would  be  abused 
and  turned  into  falsehood,  or  from  the  belief  that  such 
has  been  the  case  ;  but  it  has  also  existed  on  account 
of  the  exegetical  difficulties  of  the  passage  in  the  first 
Epistle  of  St.  Peter  which  seems  to  speak  of  Jesus' 
experience  after  death,  and  because  this  passage 
speaks  of  communication  with  only  a  certain  num- 
ber and  description  of  departed  ones.  Upon  this 
passage  the  present  author  has  bestowed  much  thought 
and  study,  and  an  Exegesis  of  it  will  be  found  in  an 
appendix,1  which  he  thinks  will  explain  this  peculiarity 
of  the  narrative,  and  diminish,  if  not  abolish,  the  diffi- 
culty. But  however  that  may  be,  and  even  if  there 
were  no  Scriptural  ground  to  support  the  doctrine  of 
such  communication  with  the  departed  after  Jesus' 
death,  it  may  be  deduced  a  priori  as  above,  and  cannot 
be  thought  away. 

We  cannot  then  refuse  to  think  of  Jesus  after  his 
death  as  having  relation  to  the  departed  ones,  and  a 

1  See  Appendix  E. 


6  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

human  relation  to  the  universe.  Otherwise  he  retires, 
for  imagination,  into  the  abyss  of  utter  loneliness,  or 
as  absorbed  into  the  Divine  relation  solely.  To  the 
first  supposition  we  might  reconcile  our  thought  in 
the  case  of  any  other  one  of  the  human  race,  as  need- 
ing this  solitude  in  order  to  come  to  perfect  self- 
knowledge  (though  even  here  difficulties  spring  up,  as 
has  before  been  indicated),  but  we  can  think  no  such 
necessity  in  this  case.  And  the  second  supposition 
introduces  an  inexplicable  hiatus  in  his  human  experi- 
ence, a  suspension  of  it  without  meaning. 

What  was  the  nature  of  such  relation  of  him  to  the 
departed,  and  how  affecting  their  history  and  destiny, 
is  a  question  we  shall  discuss  to  the  full  in  its  proper 
place.  Now  we  only  think  of  it  as  a  necessary  stage 
in  his  own  career.  It  is  not  the  strengthening  Gf  his 
human  love.  That  reached  its  utmost  increment  upon 
the  cross.  But  this  experience,  as  well  as  the  surviv- 
ing relation  to  his  own  left  upon  the  earth,  is  needed 
to  establish  the  means  of  communication  between 
himself  and  the  whole  of  human  kind,  so  that  it  can 
veritably  be  said  that  He  died  for  all  men.  It  is 
needed  that  He  should  be  known  as  the  triumphant 
One  to  the  departed,  and  as  the  risen  and  glorified 
One  to  the  surviving,  to  the  infant  Church,  in  order 
that  the  channels  of  intercourse  and  activity  may  be 
established  which  are  to  bring  about  man's  recovery 
and  regeneration,  the  perfection  of  the  soul,  body  and 
mind.  Forces  must  now  be  set  in  motion,  ethical 
forces,  physical  forces,  intellectual  forces,  or  variant 
modes  of  Divine  activity,  and  these  in  right  relation, 
and  all  in  a  grand  providential  scheme.  To  under- 
stand these  in  right  relation  is  our  next  endeavor. 


RESULTS  OF  THE  INCARNATION.  7 

To  isolate  any  one  of  these  forces,  influences,  or 
processes,  whether  ethical,  intellectual,  or  vital,  will 
accomplish  an  imperfect  Theology.  They  must  be 
exhibited  in  equal  necessity  and  in  right  relation  and 
order.  Man  is  not  to  be  restored  ethically  or  re- 
ligiously, and  then  his  physical  perfection  imparted 
per  saltum  and  arbitrarily,  as  though  by  no  necessity  ; 
but  the  one  flows  from  the  other  by  an  absolute  and 
immutable  law, — is  involved  in  the  very  idea  of  human 
creation.  He  is  not  to  be  restored  physically  or 
vitally  by  a  miracle,  irrespective  of  his  moral  freedom, 
and  as  by  magic,  for  this  is  to  make  the  physical  pro- 
cess supreme  over  the  ethical  one.  It  is  to  degrade 
our  notion  of  man,  and  to  degrade  or  impair  our  idea 
of  God.  He  is  not  to  be  restored  mentally,  and 
gifted  with  cloudless  insight,  and  tne  ethical  and  re- 
ligious perfection  reached  through  some  logical  pro- 
cess not  to  be  vindicated  by  human  understanding,  for 
this  is  to  fall  back  upon  a  realm  of  abstractions,  and 
give  us  a  scheme  in  which  Love  has  no  necessary 
place. 

If  then  the  mental  emancipation  of  Jesus,  and  his 
physical  glorification  sprang  from  his  perfected  Love, 
and  his  ethical  strength,  the  same  must  be  the  order 
of  thought  and  the  order  of  the  process  in  each  human 
subject ;  yet  neither  of  these  can  be  thought  correctly 
and  exhaustively,  but  in  right  relation  to  each  other. 
The  ethical  process  itself  can  only  be  rightly  thought 
as  implying  a  mental  and  a  physical  process.  For, 
let  us  remember  that  the  act  of  self-limitation  of  the 
Eternal  Son,  which  becomes  Incarnation,  is  only 
actual,  and  only  known  and  felt  as  sacrificial  and 
loving,  by  its  involving  also  a  physical  process.     The 


8  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

love  of  the  Father  is  shown  in  his  sending  the  Son. 
The  love  of  the  Son  is  shown  in  his  becoming  that 
"  Holy  Thing  "  in  the  womb  of  his  mother,  and  enter- 
ing upon  human  development.  This,  though  the 
central  and  real  force  is  the  loving  Divine  will,  shows 
itself  as  a  physical  process,  and  as  a  mental  process  as 
well,  for  the  rudimentary  consciousness  of  the  child 
contains  the  conditions  for  all  mental  development. 
It  is  the  appropriating,  assimilating  power,  which 
deals  with  the  relations  furnished  by  the  realms  of 
matter  and  of  spirit,  and  works  them  up  into  knowl- 
edge. There  is  no  separation  of  the  mental  and  the 
physical  in  the  concrete,  or  even  in  the  abstract.  We 
can  only  think  the  physical  under  mental  forms.  We 
can  only  think  the  mental  as  already  determined  by 
the  physical,  and  we  can  only  think  either,  or  both,  as 
involving  complacency  or  enjoyment,  which  is  simply 
love,  in  its  passage  from  its  incipiency  to  its  perfec- 
tion. Abstraction  here  has  been  the  vice  of  Theology 
as  well  as  of  Philosophy,  and  has  led  into  many 
delusions. 

But  it  still  remains  true  that,  in  order  to  understand 
the  complex  process,  the  governing  thought  is  the 
ethical,  which  must,  therefore,  first  be  considered. 
We  must  treat  of  the  ethical  or  subjective  relation 
with  such  implications  of  the  others  as  are  indispensa- 
ble. The  Divine  Love  \sprius  when  we  think  of  the 
Incarnation,  but  this  Divine  Love  itself  implies  thought 
or  purpose,  and  these  are  grounded  in  the  essential 
constitution  of  the  Godhead,  in  which  too  are  found 
the  conditions  for  the  manifestation  of  the  Divine 
Love,  viz.  :  the  Divine  Glory.  The  moment  we  ab- 
stract for  thought  any  one  of  these  elements   of  all 


RESULTS  OF  THE  INCARNATION.  9 

concrete  being,  we  find  that  in  dealing  with  it  we  are 
implying  and  including  the  others.  But  to  think  the 
entirety  rightly  we  must  consider  first  the  ethical 
relation.  The  first  endeavor  of  the  believers  whom 
Christ  left  on  the  earth  was  to  create  in  others  such 
an  ethical  relation,  to  make  other  believers.  But 
such  belief  implies  knowledge,  and  thus  the  required 
faith  must  include  both  an  ethical  and  an  intellectual 
relation.  These,  as  shown  in  the  experience  of  the 
Christian  neophyte,  must  have  a  history,  and  can  be 
explicated  for  the  understanding.  Nor  can  we  dismiss 
from  our  thought  the  physical  relation,  for  each  sub- 
ject from  whom  this  faith  is  asked  is  an  idiosyncratic 
concretion  of  inherited  tendencies  coming-  through  the 
physical  organic  continuity.  Each  is  a  distinct  struc- 
ture to  be  harmonized.  Each  has  more  or  less  fetter 
upon  his  freedom.  That  a  force  and  a  light  are  sup- 
plied, counteracting  the  bondage  sufficiently  to  restore 
the  moral  freedom,  and  hence  the  responsibility,  which 
force  must  act  upon  the  physical  proclivities,  we  have 
seen  is  indicated  by  the  philosophic  doctrine  of  grace 
— i.  e.,  that  man,  as  a  universal,  is  related  to  the  un- 
known universe,  or  the  universe  as  passing  under- 
standing, as  well  as  to  the  known  universe.  In 
theological  language  derived  from  Scriptural  intima- 
tions, this  becomes  a  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  or 
the  universality  of  preventing  grace — i.  e.,  mystical 
activity  and  conditions  making  human  moral  freedom 
possible,  and  establishing  human  responsibility.  We 
have  then  to  make  explicit  a  doctrine  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  ere  we  can  explicate  fully  Christian  faith,  see- 
ing that  it  is  the  result  of  and  describes  not  only  an 
ethical   relation,  and  an  intellectual  one,  but  also  a 


io  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

mystical  or  vital  one,  which  therefore  affects  the  physi- 
cal being  as  well. 

The  most  profound  as  well  as  the  most  complex 
act  or  state  possible  for  man  is  Christian  faith,  and 
yet  it  is  something  of  which  the  simplest  human  capa- 
city is  capable.  We  may  endeavor  a  subjective  an- 
alysis of  it,  and  discover  that  all  the  conditions  above 
described  are  needed  for  its  explication  ;  or  we  may 
by  an  a  priori  process  as  above  show  that  from  only 
the  sum  of  conditions  described  can  Christian  faith 
arise. 


CHAPTER   II. 

THE   FUNCTION  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT. 

All  relation  to  the  universe,  thought  under  what- 
ever name,  creation  or  sustentation,  purpose  or  ideal 
end,  activity  or  change,  is  referable  to  the  Godhead 
as  such.  The  Absolute  Being,  the  eternal  ground,  of 
whose  essence  it  is  to  objectify  himself,  the  substan- 
tial principle,  is  the  Eternal  Father,  from  whom  all 
thought  a  priori  proceeds  by  the  mediating  step  of 
eternal  generation, — to  whom  all  thought  and  experi- 
ence a  posteriori  lead  back. 

Whatever  belongs  to  thought  and  can  be  known  by 
intelligence,  and  hence  the  form  of  all  experience,  is 
referable  to  the  Divine  Logos,  the  inexhaustible  sum 
of  the  Divine  ideas.  And  since  no  idea  can  be 
thought  unaccompanied  by  complacency,  He  is  fig- 
ured also  as  the  Eternal  Son,  in  perfect  filial  relation, 
regarded  by  and  regarding  the  Eternal  Father  with 
supreme  delight. 

But  this  reciprocal  relation  is  constitutive.  The 
possibility  of  activity  is  now  thinkable,  and  not  till 
now  ;  and  all  activity  is  referable  to  a  third  hypostasis, 
or  consciousness,  for  if  accompanied  by  complacency, 
it  must  be  personal  ;  yet  it  can  only  be  thought  under 
the  conditions  supplied  by  the  two  preceding.  We 
can  now  see  love  as  other  than  a  timeless  relation,  as 
in  act,  and  manifested  in  a  process.    The  Holy  Spirit 


12  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

is  the  principle  of  all  activity,  the  ground  and  pos- 
sibility of  which  escapes  human  intelligence,  and 
which  hence  is  called  mystical.  The  Spirit  of  God 
brooded  over  the  primal  chaos,  informed  it,  and 
changed  it  by  his  own  energy  so  as  to  display  the 
Divine  thought.  This  chaos,  referred  to  in  the  Scrip- 
tures, indeed  is  not  the  pure  primal  Glory,  but  is  already 
the  Divine  Glory  determined,  and  into  which,  possi- 
bly, the  contradiction  has  entered.  The  Holy  Spirit 
is  the  Lord  and  Giver  of  Life,  though  the  Divine 
Logos  be  the  mediating  principle  of  all  life-processes. 
He  "  quickeneth  whom  He  will,"  but  as  Father  and 
Son  also,  in  the  one  will,  quicken.  His  function  is,  for 
our  understanding,  that  to  him  are  referred  all  life- 
processes,  so  far  as  they  require  an  energy  in  its 
purity  escaping  our  consciousness.  There  is  ever 
something  in  their  explanation  which  eludes  our  in- 
tellect. Even  the  chemical  and  mechanical  forces, 
however  far  they  can  be  analyzed  or  traced  back,  con- 
duct us  to  an  unintelligible  point,  which  can  be 
thought  only  as  connecting  the  spiritual  will  with 
the  sphere  of  its  activity.  This  fact  alone  renders 
probable  that  nature,  notwithstanding  her  seeming 
passivity,  is  not  dead  but  living,  exhibits  in  all  her 
changes  not  only  the  Divine  thought,  but  the  Divine 
Love,  and  hence  the  Divine  complacency.  The  flowers 
that  "  blush  unseen  "  are  attended  by  the  Divine  pres- 
ence and  are  within  the  sphere  of  the  Divine  Love. 
This  is  needed  to  think  to  exhaust  our  conception  of 
the  Divine  Omnipresence.  God  finds  joy  in  all  his 
works.  Nature  then  is  rightly  thought  as  living,  and 
that  the  recuperative  and  exalting  forces  and  move- 
ments are  busy  and  present  in  her. 


FUNCTION  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT.  13 

All  energy  or  mystical  activity  whatever  is  then  by 
Christian  thinking  referred  to  the  Holy  Spirit.  This 
thought  was  familiar  to  the  Old-Testament  writers,  to 
whom  the  words  "  The  Spirit  of  God "  meant  the 
dvvafxi?  vipwrov,  the  Divine  power  working  mystically. 
All  life-processes  then  are  the  activity  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  realizing  and  manifesting  the  Divine  thought 
in  a  hierarchy  of  ideas — plant,  animal,  man  (whether 
simultaneously  or  in  succession  is  indifferent).  Each 
new  idea  then  may  be  thought  as  in  its  realization 
displaying  a  distinct  mode  of  activity  (though  no  im- 
mediate purpose  is  distinct  and  exhaustive,  but  runs 
into  another  and  has  its  full  significance  from  the  en- 
tirety). It  is  a  manner  of  speech  not  misleading,  then, 
to  say  that  the  Holy  Spirit  came,  when  the  chaos  be- 
gan to  bud  and  blossom  ;  and  again  when  enjoyment 
was  superadded  to  the  life-processes,  and  the  animal 
appeared  ;  and  again  when  man,  however  developed 
or  created  out  of  the  existing  material,  was  irradiated 
from  the  spirit  realm,  so  as  to  exhibit  the  complete 
image  of  God.  Thus  the  creation  of  the  progenitors 
of  the  human  race  must  be  thought  as  the  work  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  so  far  as  concerns  the  category  of  mystical 
energy,  as  well  as  of  the  Son,  as  supplying  the  Divine 
idea,  of  which  He  himself  is  the  archetype,  and  which 
itself  is  the  Father  self-dirempted  into  the  paternal- 
filial  relation  ;  and  this  three-foldness,  realized  in  the 
field  of  the  Divine  Glory,  which  as  thus  determined  is 
the  universe,  is  imaged  in  man. 

And  also,  if  the  Divine  energy  is  thus  recuperative 
and  exalting  from  its  very  conception  as  such,  it  must 
reach  not  only  nature,  not  only  the  vital  processes,  but 
man   in   his   spiritual  being,  which  too  has  come  to 


14  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

share  in  the  contradiction.  This,  as  we  have  seen  be- 
fore, is  the  philosophic  vindication  of  the  doctrine  of 
grace,  and  means  that  the  human  being  is  under 
influences  that  elude  his  consciousness  and  under- 
standing, not  only  in  the  physical,  but  in  the  purely 
spiritual  relations  and  history.  That,  in  the  Divine 
plan,  the  restorative  forces  are  to  reach  his  entire 
being  requires  that  (unless  we  think  a  reversal  of  the 
absolute  law  of  all  concrete  being)  absolute  perfection 
must  and  can  spring  only  from  the  pure  principle  of 
love,  and  therefore  that  the  Divine  influences  to 
bring  about  man's  recovery  shall  be  at  once  and  with- 
out cessation  operative.  However  little  we  may  trace 
the  evidence  of  this  a  posteriori  (and  here  we  are  not 
entirely  without  evidence,  as  we  shall  see  hereafter), 
we  are  obliged  to  think  it  on  a  priori  grounds.  This, 
in  theological  language,  is  the  doctrine  of  the  univer- 
sality of  preventing  grace,  and  means  that  mystical 
influence  sufficient  to  restore  man's  moral  freedom, 
which  otherwise  would  seem  to  be  lost  by  his  moral 
defection,  is  at  once  supplied,  as  well  as  the  providen- 
tial environment  which  is  to  accomplish  his  discipline. 
The  narrative  in  the  book,  Genesis,  asserts  or  implies 
this.  The  Holy  Spirit  can  never  be  lost  from  man, 
or  man  would  cease  to  exist  as  such,  but  He  can  enter 
into  a  new  mode  of  relation,  one  only  exalting  as  it  is 
first  restorative,  and  both  still  under  the  condition 
and  the  limitations  of  human  freedom. 

That  the  right  moral  choice  made  possible  by  the 
grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  which  indicates  man's 
responsibility,  and  that  he  determines,  in  this  sense, 
his  own  destiny,  is  not  identical  with,  or  of  itself 
alone  sufficient  to  ensure  his  salvation  or  perfection, 


FUNCTION  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT.  15 

but  only  supplies  an  indispensable  condition  for  it,  will 
be  exhibited  at  length  hereafter,  and  may  already  be 
seen  to  be  implied  in  what  has  gone  before. 

To  realize  the  new  idea,  to  start  the  new  human 
race,  the  Holy  Spirit,  of  course,  is  the  active  principle, 
and  through  his  mystical  energy  is  accomplished  the 
conception  of  Jesus  Christ.  Jesus  himself  is  the 
Divine  thought,  the  Logos,  the  Eternal  Son,  who 
thus  through  the  activity  of  the  Holy  Spirit  realizes 
the  Father's  will.  Thus  it  may  be  legitimately  said 
that  He  created  his  own  humanity.  To  assume  it  in 
its  essential  idea,  defecated  of  the  contradiction  which 
has  entered  the  concrete,  is  to  create  it.  (This  was 
perceived  by  Justin  Martyr,  and  accounts  for  his 
strenuous  assertion  that  the  Logos  created  his  own 
humanity,  as  possibly  foreseeing  afar  off  such  a  mis- 
conception as  the  so-called  Nestorian  heresy.)  But 
this  humanity  was  at  the  same  time  the  creation  of 
the  Father,  or  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  seeing  that  it  can 
only  be  rightly  thought  as  involving  a  relation  to  each 
hypostasis,  and  hence  to  the  Godhead  as  such. 

Now,  since  in  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ  innocence 
is  restored,  the  operation  of  the  Holy  spirit  may  be 
normal.  No  impediment  exists,  and  He  can  be  given 
"without  measure," — i.  e.,  according  to  the  require- 
ments of  the  normally  advancing  development.  The 
whole  moral  and  religious  career  of  Jesus  must  be 
thought  as  mediated  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  To  miss 
this  truth  is  to  make  a  painful  hiatus  and  a  needless 
difficulty.  If  his  prayers  to  the  Father  mean  any 
thing,  it  is  that  they  indicate  not  only  the  personal 
communion  with  the  Father,  which  is  the  timeless 
ground  and  changeless   description  of   all   Christian 


16  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

prayer,  but  also  that  providential  changes  are  possible, 
and  that  the  mystical  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
may  be  supplied  according  to  the  conditions  of  the 
moral  and  religious  development,  of  the  stages  of 
which  development  these  prayers  are  an  indication. 

No  new  relation  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  or  no  relation 
different  in  kind  from  the  already  existing  one,  is 
thinkable  for  his  disciples  during  the  earthly  career  of 
Jesus.  Not  until  Christian  faith  in  the  fulness  of  its 
definition  becomes  possible,  is  this  thinkable.  That 
could  only  be  after  his  resurrection,  and  the  harmon- 
ization of  their  consciousness,  which,  as  we  have  seen, 
was  a  time-procedure  and  the  termination  of  which  was 
indicated  by  their  Lord's  departure  and  ascension ; — 
not  till  then  could  the  Holy  Spirit  come  to  establish  a 
new  relation.  However  a  marked  step  forward  in  re- 
ligious consciousness  was  indicated  by  St.  Peter's  ex- 
clamation and  recognition  of  his  Master's  Divine  Son- 
ship,  it  was  not  yet  the  full  Christian  consciousness. 
The  spiritual  strength  was  not  there,  or  he  could  not 
have  felt  his  faith  so  readily  give  way,  he  could  not 
have  denied  his  Master.  The  resurrection  itself, 
which  completed  the  supply  of  the  requirements  of  the 
complex  human  nature,  its  sense  and  imagination  as 
well  as  its  thought,  and  hence  the  completeness  of  its 
feeling,  was  needed  for  Christian  faith  to  be  what  it 
is,  to  superadd  to  its  metaphysical  definition  the  con- 
ditions for  the  profound  personal  tie  which  is  the 
unique  motive-spring  of  its  obedience.  Then,  for  the 
first  time,  do  we  find  faith  in  its  fulness,  which  shows 
itself  as  rendering  possible  a  new  relation  to  the  uni- 
verse, and  an  elevated  relation  to  the  Holy  Spirit. 
Hence  the  charismata,  as  the  indication  that  through 


FUNCTION  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT.  17 

this  mystical  influence  new  triumphs  over  nature,  new 
providential  arrangements,  had  become  possible. 
When  the  New-Testament  writers  speak  of  the  com- 
ing or  reception  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  they  refer  to  these 
manifested  signs  of  a  new  relation  accomplished,  and 
it  is  not  meant  to  deny  that  theretofore  no  relation  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  to  humanity  was  existent  or  possible, 
and  that  He,  as  such,  was  without  any  function  or 
sphere  of  activity  in  the  human  race.  But  his  normal, 
ideal,  and  permanent  relation  to  humanity  as  such 
could  only  be  when  the  Redeeming  One  should  have 
ascended  ;  then  the  Paraclete  might  come  to  be  the 
mediating  principle  in  the  contemplated  work  of 
Christian  activity  ;  then,  when  Christian  faith  could 
exist,  and  be  strengthened  by  its  trials,  and  require 
this  mystical  comfort,  the  "  peace  which  passeth  un- 
derstanding,"— when  the  mystical  regenerative  forces 
might  be  started,  reaching  man's  entire  nature,  and 
which  were  to  have  their  sacraments  and  channels  in 
the  rites  which  the  Master  had  instituted  ;  then,  when 
the  intellectual  advancements,  which  were  to  be  for- 
ever and  from  absolute  needs  correspondent  to  the 
ethical  and  religious  growth  of  Christians,  as  individ- 
uals or  as  the  Church,  should  require  the  clarifying 
and  harmonizing  efficacy  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  and 
when  the  objective  conditions  for  the  preservation  of 
such  truth  as  could  create  the  Christian  conscious- 
ness should  be  supplied  and  preserved. 

The  special  function  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  new 
creation  in  Christ  Jesus  may  be  thought  then  as  four- 
fold. 

First. — His  activity  in  accomplishing  Christian 
faith. 

Vol.  II. 


1 8  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

Second. — His  activity  in  the  regenerative  process, 
and  hence  the  meaning  of  the  Christian  sacraments. 

Third. — His  activity  as  guiding  into  all  truth,  and 
making,  as  time  advances,  the  subjective  apprehen- 
sion of  the  same  harmonize  more  and  more  with  its 
objective  and  absolute  significance  and  nature. 

Fourth. — His  relation  to  humanity  in  its  interme- 
diate condition,  and  to  the  perfected  humanity  in 
heaven, — or  his  function  in  the  problems  of  Escha- 
tology. 

These  four  will  indicate  the  remaining  divisions  of 
our  work. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE    METAPHYSICAL    ELEMENTS    OF    FAITH. 

The  primal  fault  of  man  is  represented  in  the  book, 
Genesis,  as  springing  from  doubt,  irresolution  be- 
tween the  alternatives  of  belief  and  unbelief,  which, 
when  the  temptation  is  yielded  to  and  the  experiment 
resolved  upon,  reaches  expression  in  an  overt  act  of 
will  and  becomes  disobedience  or  sin.  Temptation 
was  possible,  but  the  yielding  to  it  was  not  inevitable, 
or  it  could  not  meet  our  conception  of  sin,  and  involve 
responsibility.  That  external  suggestion  and  possi- 
bly mystical  influence  were  superadded  to  the  subjec- 
tive presentation  of  temptation,  seeking  to  bewilder 
and  bias  the  thinking  mind  of  the  progenitors  of  the 
human  race,  is  also  indicated.  The  possibility  of  such 
interference  opens  the  problem  of  the  origin  of  spirit- 
ual evil,  which  the  present  author  thinks  to  be  insolu- 
ble for  the  human  intellect  under  its  present  limita- 
tions ;  and  it  will  hereafter  be  maintained  that  insight 
here  would  be  no  boon  to  humanity,  would  not  further 
human  recovery,  but  would  rather  retard  it,  or  make  it 
impossible.  From  the  very  necessity  of  the  case  this 
insight  eludes  the  penetration  of  any  rational  being 
yet  falling  short  of  ethical  perfection. 

The  sin  of  the  first  human  ones  cannot  be  spoken 
of  as  selfishness,  however  it  be  a  mistake  of  self- 
love.     Such  selfishness  is  the  very  contradiction  of  in- 

19 


20  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

nocence  or  moral  indifference.  It  could  not  spring  out 
of  their  then  existing  relation  to  the  universe  made 
provisionally  correspondent  to  a  state  of  innocence. 
Such  supposition  would  carry  evil  back  to  a  physical 
ground,  and  deny  its  moral  quality.  To  think  them 
already  selfish  supposes  a  dualism,  and  that  evil  has 
already  entered  into  their  structure,  and  become  a 
part  of  the  definition  of  their  being.  Their  primal 
tendencies,  however  limited  in  sphere,  are  in  harmony 
with  each  other,  and  all  tend  Godward.  But  to  fulfil 
their  sublime  idea  they  are  to  be  self-creative  as  to 
their  moral  structure,  and  hence  are  free,  and  may 
manufacture  subjective  ideals.  To  resist  and  subor- 
dinate these  gives  them  moral  strength,  spiritual  fibre. 
To  yield  to  them  is  to  lose  the  harmony  of  their  struc- 
ture, and  add  new  force  to  the  primal  temptation,  and 
thus  they  become  selfish,  not  uniformly  and  monoto- 
nously such,  but  in  increasing  or  diminishing  degrees 
according  to  the  now  necessary  contest  between  con- 
flicting tendencies,  each  particular  individual  being  a 
unique  synthesis  of  the  same.  Henceforth  to  remain 
true  to  their  allegiance  requires  effort  and  sacrifice  ; 
and  each  one  moves  forward  one  way  or  another,  yet 
in  no  case  can  regain  the  lost  innocence.  How  far 
explicable,  in  the  case  of  the  members  of  the  human 
race  now  set  forth  in  their  career,  is  this  movement  in 
one  direction  or  the  other ;  i.  e.  what  is  the 
last  ground  of  their  differing  moral  choice,  is 
the  problem  called  "  the  problem  of  their  eternal 
election,"  and  is  one  which  we  shall  consider 
hereafter.  But  in  the  case  of  the  sin  of  the  first  mem- 
bers of  the  race,  they  do  not  thereby  become  utterly 
selfish  or  depraved,  as  has  been  asserted  by  a  seeming 


ME  TA  PH YSICA L  EL EMENTS  OF  FA  ITH.      21 

logic,  which,  however,  all  facts  contradict,  and  which 
is  not  even  legitimate.  They  do  not  deliberately  make 
evil  their  good,  but  try  in  doubt,  which  is  the  true 
good,  to  be  at  once  convinced  of  their  mistake.  If 
thought  thus  utterly  selfish  and  depraved  their  recov- 
ery cannot  be  thought  possible,  except  by  some  over- 
powering physical  process,  which  would  render  en- 
tirely needless  any  ethical  process  except  as  manifes- 
tation of  the  same.  At  once,  to  be  sure,  after  trans- 
gression the  human  soul  comes  under  the  influence  of 
the  deranged  nature,  now,  by  the  law  of  correspond- 
ence, maimed  and  fallen  into  confusion.  New  visions 
of  possibilities  appear.  Temptation  acquires  force, 
and  divides  itself  endlessly,  and  thus  the  vision  be- 
comes obscured  of  the  supreme  end  to  which  the 
primal  and  spontaneous  tendencies  of  their  being 
move,  and  thus  the  natural  will  receives  a  bias  and 
struggles  under  a  heavy  load.  But,  as  we  have  seen, 
there  is  reason  to  think  that  a  make-weight  to  this 
counteracting  tendency  is  at  once  supplied,  so  that 
moral  freedom  and  responsibility  still  exist.  This  is 
the  preventing  grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Recuperation 
is  possible,  and  its  forces  enter  at  once  into  activity. 
The  still  loving  will  of  the  Father  shows  itself  in  the 
initiation  of  a  vast  providential  scheme  which  is  to 
culminate  in  the  death  of  Jesus  Christ.  This,  its  con- 
summation and  liberating  point,  which  is  to  explain  as 
well  as  confirm  and  secure  all  of  that  scheme  that 
went  before,  and  was  itself  necessary  as  the  cohering 
principle  of  the  whole  process,  was  in  the  Divine 
thought.  Hence  Christ  is  called  "the  Lamb  slain  be- 
fore the  foundation  of  the  world." 

Thus  all  human  sin  springs  from  moral  weakness 


22  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

under  possibilities  of  doubt,  and  we  can  trace  it  back, 
at  present,  no  farther.  It  shows  itself  as  a  predom- 
inant selfish  tendency  before  alternatives,  existing 
side  by  side  with  conflicting  tendencies,  the  debris  of 
the  original  predispositions  of  the  human  being.  The 
proportion  between  the  two  tendencies,  the  one 
towards  the  realization  of  the  supreme  ideal,  the  other 
towards  that  of  the  countless  manufactured  ones,  is  vari- 
ant in  the  members  of  the  human  race  ;  and  no  human 
judgment  of  the  same  is  trustworthy.  This  is  God's 
insight  only.  So  far  as  we  can  discover,  in  no  case 
does  the  one  become  so  predominant  as  entirely  to 
obliterate  the  other. 

We  maintain  the  following  theses  to  be  incontro- 
vertible :  That  God  is  existent ;  that  moral  distinc- 
tions are  absolute  ;  that  power  is  the  servant  of  love, 
which  may  and  does  become  justice  ;  that  well-being 
can  only  come  from  a  right  personal  relation  to  the 
fountain  of  all  being  ;  and  that  all  this,  however  ob- 
scurely or  dimly  felt  and  thought,  is  implicit  in  the 
consciousness  of  every  member  of  the  human  race, 
and  may  be  discovered  by  analysis  of  the  same.  The 
phenomenal  world,  its  needs  and  activities,  suggest 
other  possibilities,  and  sometimes  nearly  obliterate, 
but  never  entirely,  the  ideal  of  his  destiny  which  is 
inwrought  in  the  very  structure  of  his  being, — never 
entirely,  never  so  as  to  abolish  his  sense  of  and  hence 
the  actuality  of  his  responsibility.  Concretely,  the 
contest  becomes  one  between  the  seen  and  the  un- 
seen, and  the  question  for  each  is — which  is  the  real 
and  permanent,  and  which  the  evanescent, — that  which 
the  world  teaches,  or  that  which  these  elements  of 
the  moral  and  religious  consciousness  suggest.      It  is 


METAPHYSICAL  ELEMENTS  OF  FAITH.      23 

the  contest  of  faith  and  unfaith,  and  from  the  latter 
comes  all  sin  and  short-comingf.  From  the  former 
alone  can  come  the  possibility  of  restoration. 

Thus  faith  is  adhering  to  our  native  spiritual  al- 
legiance in  spite  of  all  drawings  astray.  If  it  be 
phrased  as  confidence  in  "the  moral  order  of  the 
universe,"  or  in  "  the  power  that  makes  for  righteous- 
ness," this  too  means  that  such  order  has  power  at  its 
service,  or  that  such  power  is  according  to  order. 
Thus  each  expression,  or  the  combination  of  the  two, 
supposes  an  ideal,  i.  e.,  an  end  apprehensible  by  the 
intellect,  and  that  could  have  its  origin  only  in  in- 
tellect. Confidence  that  good  is  the  essential  prin- 
ciple of  the  universe,  and  will  and  must  triumph  over 
every  thing  but  pure  spiritual  evil  (if  that  can  be 
maintained  to  exist  and  persist),  and  has  absolute 
command  of  all  resources,  is  really  what  is  meant  by 
these  expressions,  and  is  only  a  roundabout  way  of 
saying,  what  perhaps  the  words  may  have  been  in- 
tended to  deny  or  render  doubtful,  that  the  universe 
is  ruled  by  a  benevolent  God. 

However  absorbed  by  worldly  activities,  however 
enmeshed  in  sense,  this  conviction  or  suspicion  of  the 
reality  of  the  unseen  is  never  utterly  banished,  as  is 
shown  by  the  testimony  of  conscience  ;  and  if  in  some 
specimens  of  the  human  race  such  conscience  seems 
to  be  lacking,  we  must  either  hold  that  they  have  be- 
come purely  evil,  and  hence  are  irrecoverable,  or  else 
that  conscience  is  only  slumbering,  and  in  conse- 
quence of  the  very  depression  is  capable  of  a  more 
terrible  outburst. 

Thus  all  moral  obedience  and  disobedience  involve 
a  conflict  of  faith,  and  we  have  seen  that  the  personal 


24  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

relation  cannot  be  banished  from  it,  but  must  be  one 
of  resistance  or  acquiescence.  Hence  all  moral  obedi- 
ence is  implicitly  religious  obedience,  which  must  be 
admitted,  to  maintain  that  all  moral  disobedience  is 
sin.  However  much  we  may  emphasize  the  abstract 
law  which  comes  between  the  Fountain  of  power  and 
the  individual  subject,  it  is  still  only  the  form  which 
the  Divine  will  takes,  the  adaptation  of  the  supreme 
law  of  love  to  the  changing  conditions  of  the  creature. 
Hence,  as  we  shall  see  hereafter,  all  applied  morality, 
or  the  application  of  the  formal  law  to  actual  human 
conditions,  is  only  a  complete  science  when  it  becomes 
and  includes  Christian  morality.  Faith  in  the  validity 
of  moral  distinctions  is  then  implicitly  faith  in  God  as 
a  loving  and  almighty  Person,  and  all  attempts  to  ex- 
clude this  implication  have  been  vain  and  meaning- 
less. There  is  implied  that  the  unseen  is  the  real,  the 
permanent,  the  eternal ;  that  the  seen  is  the  changing, 
provisional,  transitory  ;  not  mere  shine,  but  an  ever- 
opening  process.  But  there  are  all  degrees  of  explicit- 
ness  which  the  human  mind  can  make  of  this  un- 
seen reality.  Objectify  in  and  for  human  thought 
the  matter  of  faith,  and  without  some  corrections  sup- 
plied it  would  differ  greatly,  though  not  essentially, 
for  every  human  subject.  So  far  as  faith  is  a  moral 
and  religious  relation,  it  is  simply  and  forever  the 
same,  but  so  far  as  the  object  of  this  relation  can 
come  within  the  sphere  of  human  thought,  it  is  end- 
lessly changing.  Hence  the  need,  if  possible,  of  some 
aid  or  interference  to  clarify  and  amplify  the  object 
of  faith.  Even  to  the  most  enlightened  conscious- 
ness the  object-matter  of  this  faith,  however  expressi- 
ble in  propositions,  becomes  dim  or  clear,  waxes  or 


METAPHYSICAL  ELEMENTS  OF  FAITH.      25 

wanes,  for  the  feeling,  and  hence  for  the  activity. 
Thus,  starting  from  the  postulate  of  God  as  loving, 
we  have,  on  a  priori  grounds,  displayed  the  possibility 
of  Divine  interference  to  clarify  the  object  of  faith. 
And  if  such  interference  has  been  actual,  it  must  have 
been  by  steps  and  degrees,  and  have  salient  appre- 
hensible points  for  the  mind,  visible  crises,  all  adapted 
to  the  progressive  development  of  mankind.  That 
God  has  thus  manifested  himself  in  various  degrees 
of  nearness  and  clearness,  till  at  length  making  the 
perfect  manifestation  of  himself  in  Jesus  Christ,  is 
what  Christians  hold,  and  this  on  a  priori  grounds 
which  cannot  be  successfully  assaulted.  And  if  so, 
the  object-matter  of  faith  must  have  undergone  a  pro- 
cess of  clarification,  explication,  and  confirmation, 
and  human  faith  has  a  history,  and  reaches  its  true 
intent  and  meaning  in  Christian  faith.  And  the  con- 
sequence of  such  amplification  in  the  object-matter  of 
faith  must  have  been  the  accomplishing  of  corre- 
spondent change  in  the  subjective  apprehension  of  the 
same.      New  enrichments  of  thought  must  have  ac- 

o 

crued,  new  intensification  of  feeling,  and  hence  new 
motive-springs.  Christian  faith  regarded  as  a  sub- 
jective state,  having  an  objective  truth  on  which  to 
rest,  must  share  in  the  complexity  as  well  as  in  the 
simplicity  of  this  last.  We  have  therefore  to  analyze 
it  in  order  to  discover  its  constituent  elements,  to  dis- 
entangle and  show  the  connection  between  the  factors 
of  the  synthesis,  and  we  shall  discover  in  it  a  four- 
fold relation,  a  personal  or  religious  one,  an  intel- 
lectual or  subjective-objective  one,  a  moral  one  as  a 
spring  of  conduct,  and  an  emotional  one,  as  involv- 
ing and  implying  a  complex  congeries  of  feelings. 


26  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

The  object-matter  of  Divine  revelation  is  called 
"  the  faith,"  because  it  is  to  come  within  the  sphere  of 
these  various  subjective  relations,  and  because  it 
elicits  or  conditions  them.  As  the  eternal  truth,  as 
held  in  the  Divine  mind,  is  unchangeable,  the  subjec- 
tive appropriation  of  the  same  must  be  a  continuous 
approximation  of  the  enlightened  Christian  mind 
towards  an  identity  with  the  absolute  meaning,  and 
Christian  faith  in  its  intensity  and  perfection  will  lapse 
into  sight,  and  be  the  beatific  vision  itself.  The  mass 
of  mankind  have  been  seemingly  left  without  external 
interference  and  aid  from  a  directly  Divine  source. 
Why  this  is  so  is  part  of  the  mystery  of  Providence, 
to  unriddle  which  a  speculative  endeavor  will  be  made 
hereafter.  But,  according  to  the  Old-Testament  nar- 
ratives, to  selected  ones  of  the  human  race  there  has 
been  vouchsafed  such  aiding  Divine  manifestation.  If 
any  such  was  normal  and  frequent  in  the  early  stages 
of  the  career  of  mankind,  as  some  think,  it  soon 
became  dim  for  the  mass  of  the  same.  That  such 
manifestation  was  general,  or  other  than  extremely 
limited,  cannot  be  historically  made  out.  The  testi- 
mony seems  rather  to  diminish  the  probability,  and  we 
have,  if  we  can,  to  find  a  reason  for  this  exclusiveness 
of  the  Divine  dealings  with  man.    But  of  this  hereafter. 

Our  a  priori  method  hitherto  leaves  us,  however, 
at  the  conclusion  that  the  internal  conflict  in  every 
responsible  human  being  has  been  a  different  syn- 
thesis of  tendencies,  the  preponderating  one  of  which 
represents  the  will  for  the  time  being  ;  which  state  of 
things  it  is  manifest  would  necessitate  a  different 
providential  treatment  in  every  case ;  yet  that  the 
preponderance  of  the  primal  predispositions  Godward 
in  some  cases,  in  individuals,  in  families  and  tribes, 


METAPHYSICAL  ELEMENTS  OF  FAITH.      27 

has  been  sufficient  to  render  possible  a  unique  provi- 
dential treatment,  i.  e.,  one  in  which  the  Divine  con- 
descension and  guidance  become  visible  and  knowable. 
Our  first  enquiry,  therefore,  into  the  nature  of  faith 
as  a  universal  possibility,  must  be  of  such  as  was  and 
still  is  possible  for  the  mass  of  mankind  unenlightened 
by  any  such  Divine  interference. 

Here  would  be  the  place,  perhaps,  for  the  study  of 
comparative  religions  ;  but  this  is  an  historical  field 
into  which  it  is  beyond  the  province  of  this  particular 
work  to  enter.  What  remains  is  to  show  that  the 
analysis  of  man's  moral  experience  furnishes  a  contri- 
bution to  the  philosophy  of  religion  itself,  and  that 
all  right  moral  relation  is,  when  rightly  looked  into, 
religious.  We  are  not  concerned  to  show  how  this 
has  produced  or  issued  in  the  various  cultus  that  have 
marked  human  history,  become  alternately  corrupted 
and  degraded,  or  purified, — but  how,  even  amid  the 
various  degrees  of  moral  knowledge,  the  essential 
elements  of  the  religious  relation,  whence  only  any 
cultus  can  spring,  have  been  preserved.  It  may  turn 
out,  on  examination,  that  faith  in  the  reality  of  the 
unseen,  and  the  implications  which  constitute  religion, 
are  quite  as  detectable  in  the  rude  savage  as  in  the 
most  cultured  pagan,  in  the  simplest  as  well  as  in  the 
most  developed  intellect.  It  may  also  appear  that 
moral  grades  are  not  absolutely  subservient  to  intel- 
lectual grades,  but  rather  the  reverse, — that  to  have 
hold  of  the  central  truth  is  a  higher  mental  attain- 
ment than  to  wander  with  whatever  accumulation 
among  the  bewildering  perplexities  of  the  circum- 
ference. What,  then,  is  the  object-matter  of  man's 
natural  and  simple  consciousness,  his  relation  to  which 
constitutes  faith  ? 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    ANALYSIS     OF     FAITH    AS     A     POSSIBLY     UNIVERSAL 
RELATION,  AND  THE  INCREMENTS    WHICH  CON- 
STITUTE   IT     CHRISTIAN     FAITH. 

Faith  includes  and  is  founded  upon  a  naive  and 
spontaneous  recognition  of  the  law  of  causality  which 
rules  all  human  thinking.  This  abstractly  and  uncon- 
sciously is  the  primum  of  human  thinking.  All  cat- 
egories whatever  are  resolvable  into  causality,  and  are 
syntheses  of  It  and  something  empirically  apprehended. 
Concretely  and  consciously  causality  is  the  ultimate 
of  human  thinking,  and  is  reached  by  analysis.  The 
unseen  power  felt  in  the  rudimentary  consciousness 
becomes,  for  the  determined  and  developed  conscious- 
ness, a  power  involving  thought,  i.  e.,  method  or  law, 
and  becomes  at  once  a  determining,  guiding,  or  ruling 
element  in  all  conduct,  even  though  no  attempt  be 
made  to  fix  it  in  a  definite  thought  or  concrete  propo- 
sition. The  very  sensations  which  are  the  condi- 
tions of  perception  and  knowledge  speedily  come  to 
be  known  as  not  exceptional  and  arbitrary,  but  fixed 
and  uniform  ;  and  this  knowledge  is  soon  resolved 
into  the  recognition  of  law.  New  sensations  bring  in 
their  train  knowledee  of  new  laws  or  fixed  methods. 
The  power  which  thus  objectively  reaches  the  subject 
has  therefore  meaning,  or  no  knowledge  were  possible. 
All  mental  activity  and  all    experience  add   to  the 

28 


ANAL  YSIS  OF  FAITH.  29 

accumulating  evidence  that  the  modes  of  manifesta- 
tion of  this  power,  at  first  obscurely  felt,  are  pre- 
adapted  to  our  capacity  of  apprehension,  and  can 
come  only  from  thought  and  will.  Though  the  first 
efforts  of  deliberate  thinking  may  mislead,  and  fall 
into  the  mistake  of  regarding  this  power  in  the  form 
of  a  multiplicity  of  forces  or  activities,  these  sooner 
or  later  concentrate  and  coalesce,  and  the  conception 
of  unity  is  definitely  reached.  Further  thinking  may 
still  further  bewilder,  but  sooner  or  later  winds  its 
way  back  to  its  primitive  and  naive  inference,  to  the 
result  reached  by  the  first  and  spontaneous  processes 
of  reasoning.  All  fact  falls  of  itself  into  the  category 
of  causality.  It  is  really  impossible  to  think  the  power 
which  manifests  itself  everywhere  to  the  human  sub- 
ject as  mindless.  The  uniformity  of  nature,  which 
makes  knowledge  possible,  is  itself  the  irrefutable 
evidence  that  it  is  the  activity  and  mode  of  manifesta- 
tion of  mind.  This  object-matter  of  human  percep- 
tion and  thought,  which  is  at  first  apprehended  as 
matter  in  motion,  and  which  in  various  degrees  mod- 
ifies and  forever  rules  human  activity,  contains  thus  a 
spiritual  element,  which  man  cannot  leave  out  of  his 
apprehension  of  the  same,  if  he  would.  This  rela- 
tion, then,  is  the  substratum  on  which  is  founded  the 
relation  of  faith.  There  is  an  objective  power  and 
thought,  and  a  subjective  recognition  of  the  same, 
capable  of  great  modification,  amplification,  or  obscu- 
ration, but  never  of  extinction.  As  influencing  activ- 
ity through  consciousness,  it  may  have  all  degrees  of 
presence  and  determining  effect ;  and  being  some- 
thing superadded  to  the  inherited  animal  tendencies, 
and   already  involving   spiritual   pre-suppositions,   it 


30  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

originates  a  varying  conflict  between  these,  and  thus 
we  have  prudence  in  its  various  degrees. 

Thus  far,  however,  we  have  only  been  dealing  with 
the  intellectual  element  in  the  relation  of  faith.  When 
the  moral  element  is  added  it  becomes  faith  proper, 
and  in  its  simplicity  or  lowest  degree.  If  any  dis- 
tinction is  made  between  actions  or  decisions  of  will, 
on  other  grounds  than  their  prudence  or  imprudence, 
their  immediate  or  remote  expediency  for  the  indi- 
vidual subject,  we  have  such  a  moral  element  super- 
added. The  connecting  link  between  these  pruden- 
tial decisions,  habits,  tendencies,  and  the  moral 
relation,  or  conformity  to  an  ideal  and  universal  end 
more  or  less  clearly  recognized,  is  to  be  found  in  the 
benevolent  instincts  and  sympathies,  which  too  enter 
into  the  human  structure,  and  show  the  human  race 
to  be  an  organism.  That  one's  own  delight  shall  be 
paramount  as  a  governing  motive-spring,  or  that  some 
rule  having  for  its  end  the  welfare  of  the  whole  in 
which  one's  individual  welfare  shall  be  included — 
these  two  alternatives  are  mediated  by  the  benevo- 
lent tendencies,  which  make  sacrifice  possible,  and 
thus  lead  towards  the  full  recognition  of  the  latter  as 
the  supreme  end. 

All  thought,  power,  or  will  can  be  acknowledged  by 
the  human  mind  only  as  involving  feeling,  and  as 
having  beneficence  or  its  opposite  as  its  purpose,  and 
hence  as  part  of  its  concrete  definition.  The  objective 
will  which  shows  its  methods  in  the  motions  of  matter 
must  be  thought  as  benevolent  or  hostile,  or  human 
feeling  may  vibrate  between  the  two  kinds  of  recogni- 
tion. From  this  came  the  propensity  into  which  men 
early  fell,  of  inventing  a  cultus,  intended  to  sway  the 


ANALYSIS  OF  FAITH.  31 

determinations  of  the  invisible  power,  to  induce  it  to 
ward  off,  or  mollify  calamity,  or  to  be  merciful  to 
human  weakness  or  faultiness.  Here  we  have  meas- 
urably the  religious  relation  freed  from  the  moral  one, 
though  the  latter  is  never  extinguished,  but  ever 
sooner  or  later  corrects  the  former.  Only,  however, 
so  far  as  the  moral  element  is  existent  do  we  give  the 
name  of  faith.  And  if  the  former,  the  religious  rela- 
tion, is  never  absent,  however  mutilated  or  obscured, — 
the  latter,  the  moral  relation,  is  never  absent,  but  de- 
tectable in  every  form  of  superstition.  That  the 
power  and  thought  which  rule,  or  rather  constitute 
the  forces  of  nature,  and  originated  the  thinking  sub- 
ject himself,  are  the  same  as  those  which  suggest  love 
or  benevolence,  expanding  according  to  intelligence, 
as  the  supreme  object  of  life, — the  various  degrees  of 
conviction  of  this,  and  of  activity  thence  resulting, 
are  the  various  degrees  of  faith.  However  much  for 
thought  or  fancy  the  object  of  this  faith  may  be  cari- 
catured or  distorted,  whatever  synthesis  be  made  of 
the  various  elements  which  make  up  its  full  notion, 
the  moral  element  is  never  entirely  in  abeyance.  The 
fact  that  we  hold  men  as  such,  and  on  other  grounds, 
to  be  responsible,  and  accuse  them  universally  of  sin, 
should  dispose  us  to  admit  that  there  is  and  can  be  no 
exception  to  this  in  the  human  race.  To  do  so  would 
be  to  divide  its  members  by  an  impassable  wall  of  sepa- 
ration. If  there  be  moral  responsibility  and  proba- 
tion there  must  be  the  presence,  however  dim,  of  the 
moral  ideal,  rendering  possible  a  distinction  between 
actions  on  other  than  prudential  grounds ;  and  the  iden- 
tification of  this  moral  ideal  with  the  will,  or  thought- 
power  of  the  universe,  constitutes  the  object  for  faith. 


32  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

Thus,  at  the  last  and  as  the  result  of  our  analysis, 
God,  in  his  relation  to  the  universe,  is  the  only  object- 
matter  of  faith,  however  much  He  be  misconceived, 
however  dimly  his  Will  be  recognized,  however  feebly 
his  Love  be  felt. 

Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge  says  that  faith  is  the  syn- 
thesis of  reason  and  will,  that  as  a  light  it  implies  an 
energy,  and  that  as  an  energy  it  requires  a  light.  The 
moral  ideal  stamped  upon  human  nature  as  such,  in 
which  ideal  the  idea  of  God  is  implicit,  meets  the  con- 
tradicting stream  of  human  tendency  and  enters  into 
conflict  with  it.  When  it  overcomes  it  we  have  faith 
in  the  completeness  of  its  metaphysical  definition,  and 
indeed  the  synthesis  of  reason  and  will.  But  even 
when  it  is  overcome  by  it  and  put  back  into  dimness, 
it  is  not  obliterated,  and  faith  in  its  incoherence  still 
exists,  and  struggles,  though  to  appearance  often  in 
vain,  to  complete  itself.  Into  this  struggle,  as  before 
said,  the  mystical  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  may 
come  and  arrest  the  overflowing  torrent,  the  moral 
ideal  be  accepted  as  the  rule  of  life,  and  faith,  in  the 
completeness  of  its  metaphysical  definition,  be  born. 
But  even  from  this  point  it  is  susceptible  of  all  degrees 
of  strength,  and  of  clearness, — of  strength,  as  habits 
of  moral  conformity  strengthen  the  will,  and  thus 
clarify  the  mental  insight ;  of  clearness,  as  reflection, 
and  culture,  and  external  aids  clarify  or  amplify  its 
object.  But,  as  was  said  before,  he  who  feels  and 
hence  in  degree  knows  this  object  of  faith  to  be  loving, 
may  regard  it  more  truly  than  he  whose  recognition 
of  this  is  less  keen,  even  though  other  knowledge  of 
the  object  in  the  latter  case  vastly  preponderate. 

Faith    then  is  the   voluntary  act  or  state,  consti- 


ANALYSIS  OF  FAITH.  33 

tuting  the  relation  by  which  God,  as  the  author  of 
the  law  of  love,  becomes  a  reality,  i.  e.,  affects  con- 
duct, and  becomes  a  ruling  principle  in  human  action, 
whatever  mistakes  may  still  be  made  as  to  the  actions 
required  by  such  law  of  love.  It  is  thus  at  the  same 
time  an  ethical  and  an  intellectual  relation.  In  the 
latter  it  is  susceptible  of  all  degrees  of  clearness,  and 
thus  in  the  former  it  becomes  susceptible  of  all 
degrees  of  strength.  The  two  elements  of  the  defi- 
nition can  never  exist  apart  in  the  concrete,  cannot  by 
thought  even  be  perfectly  abstracted  each  from  the 
other.  Further  conclusions  or  deductions  from  the 
apprehended  intellectual  relation  may  be  made,  bring- 
ing it  by  degrees  within  the  sphere  of  comprehension  ; 
and  various  feelings  or  emotions,  which  are  corrol- 
laries  from  the  ethical  relation,  may  spring  up.  But 
this  is  the  substrat?tm  to  which  is  to  be  superadded 
whatever  increments  or  modifications  are  needed  to 
elevate  it  into  Christian  faith,  which  last  only  is  the 
principle  which  can  issue  in  what  we  call  salvation  or 
perfection. 

Human  reflection  and  culture  may  do  much  to 
clarify  the  object  of  faith,  but  only,  we  may  say, 
when  faith  in  its  ethical  quality  already  exists.  This 
is  proven  by  the  thought  of  the  Greek  and  Roman 
philosophers,  by  that  of  Socrates,  Plato,  Aristotle,  by 
that  of  Seneca,  Marcus  Aurelius,  Epictetus.  When 
the  human  heart  is  fixed  upon  the  moral  ideal  the 
mind  moves  healthily  and  is  productive  of  true  re- 
sults. But  it  is  no  part  of  our  endeavor  to  show  how 
far  these  thinkers  had  proceeded  towards  the  Chris- 
tian idea  of  the  object-matter  of  faith.  Yet  their  his- 
tory shows  how  supremely  corrective  of  all  mental 

Vol.  II. 


34  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

aberrancy  is  all  right  moral  choice.  The  natural 
progress  of  the  human  mind,  through  the  labors  of 
these  thinkers,  has  been  on  the  whole  pari  passu  with 
the  progress  it  has  made  through  the  stimuli  of 
Divine  interference  ;  and  all  seeming  contrariety  or 
defect  must  be  susceptible  of  rectification,  or  supple- 
ment. Certainly  the  former  by  the  latter  when  the  Di- 
vine revelation  is  rightly  understood,  and  sometimes 
even  the  latter  by  the  former  as  suggesting  possible 
misinterpretation.  This  is  simply  saying  that  the 
Divine  revelation  will  bear  every  test,  is  profoundly 
true  and  absolutely  rational. 

This  clarification  of  the  object-matter  of  faith  has 
been  a  process  proceeding  all  the  while,  and  easily 
detectable  and  describable  in  all  human  history.  To 
find  this  thread  is  to  find  the  key  to  interpret  history. 
That  it  is  so  detectable  in  the  stranded  civilizations,  or 
utterly  degraded  and  seemingly  stationary  races,  may 
be  a  more  difficult  conclusion  to  reach  historically, 
but  even  here  there  must  have  been  a  movement, 
a  progress,  as  well  as  a  retrogression,  but  never  stag- 
nation or  changelessness.  Nature  herself  is  in  perpet- 
ual change,  and  humanity  as  well ;  and  changes  slow  in 
the  making  are  often  most  real  and  permanent.  Here 
is  occasion  for  endeavor  in  human  investigation  to 
trace  even  in  dim  outline  the  mental  and  moral  modi- 
fications of  the  races  that  at  first  seem  to  have  been  so 
stationary.  On  a  priori  grounds  we  can  by  no  means 
admit  that  God  has  neglected  them,  and  evidence  a 
posteriori  is  sure  sooner  or  later  to  be  found  that  this 
is  so.  This  different  treatment  on  God's  part  of  the 
races  of  mankind  belongs  to  the  same  problem  with 
the  different  treatment  of  individuals  of  the  same  race, 


ANALYSIS  OF  FAITH.  35 

and  is  part  of  the  mystery  of  providence,  to  throw 
some  light  upon  which  there  will  be  a  speculative  en- 
deavor hereafter. 

But  following  the  narratives  which  we  trust,  con- 
taining the  record  of  the  Divine  interpositions,  we 
can  trace  the  gradual  clarification  and  amplification 
of  the  object-matter  of  faith.  No  doubt  it  has  often 
happened  in  human  history  that  the  conception  or 
idea  of  the  First  Principle  ruling  the  forces  of  nature, 
naively  or  spontaneously  reached,  has  been  truer  than 
its  subsequent  modifications,  and  that  many  of  man's 
tentatives  have  distorted  or  obscured  it,  instead  of 
symmetrizing  and  clarifying  it.  These  variations  in 
the  idea  subjectively  apprehended  have  been  owing, 
of  course,  to  varying  providential  conditions.  That 
there  has  been  method  and  meaning  in  thus  variantly 
apportioning  the  external  conditions,  we  may  hold  on 
a  priori  grounds,  the  argument  of  which  will  be  drawn 
out  sufficiently  hereafter.  But  on  grounds  equally 
valid  a  priori  we  may  hold  that  for  ultimate  providen- 
tial ends  there  have  been  special  stimuli  and  correc- 
tive influences  afforded  to  particular  individuals  or 
races.  That  the  revelation  of  himself  by  God  in  na- 
ture and  in  the  moral  law  is  not  sufficient,  and  is 
destined  to  have  superadded  other  openings  and 
glimpses  into  the  Divine  mind,  and  hence  that  may 
be  enlarged  the  Divine  idea,  is  entirely  in  analogy 
with  all  else  that  we  know  of  the  creation  and  the  de- 
velopment of  the  universe.  Science  is  confirmative  of 
this  conclusion  a  priori,  and  shows  us  the  hierarchy  of 
ideas,  and  that  when  any  new  one  became  apparent, 
there  is  discoverable  intimations  of  it  in  the  one  pre- 
ceding.    This  is  the  solid  truth   in    any   theory   of 


36  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

evolution,  and  is  what  we  are  concerned  not  to  deny, 
but  readily  to  admit ;  and  it  is  none  the  less  a  crea- 
tive process,  rather  more  manifestly  such,  than  if  no 
connection  were  discoverable  between  the  new  idea 
and  all  that  went  before.  Indeed  it  is  an  additional 
evidence  that  one  purpose  runs  throughout  all  the 
movements  of  the  universe,  and  that  therefore  it 
is  only  explicable  in  the  light  of  its  ultimate  idea  and 
end  ;  and  that  the  forecast  of  faith  rather  than  the  re- 
trospective glance  can  alone  give  us  hints  of  the  idea 
which  is  to  unify  and  explain  all  that  went  before. 
Any  new  idea  thus  forecasted  must  respect  man  in  his 
possible  progress.  As  the  highest  and  richest  Divine 
thought,  summing  up  in  himself  all  previous  thought, 
any  advance  must  be  in  and  through  him,  and  through 
him  only  reach  all  existence  outside  of  him,  or  prior 
to  him.  Any  new  progress  must  also  lay  hold  upon 
what  is  highest  in  him,  and  thus  affect  what  is  lower. 
His  physical  advance  is  to  be  attained  through  his 
mental  advance,  as  all  his  experience  shows,  and  both 
in  their  permanent  elements  through  his  ethical  and 
religious  advance.  If  any  new  possibility  for  his 
physical  and  mental  being  is  open  for  him  it  must 
come  from  his  ethical  elevation.  Thus  that  there 
have  been  external  stimuli  and  providential  arrange- 
ments for  this  end  is  validly  thinkable  ;  and  any  his- 
tory which  confirms  such  a  conclusion  is,  by  strict 
analogy,  if  authenticated,  in  itself  trustworthy. 

We  find,  therefore,  that  in  the  history  of  the  He- 
brew people  the  naive  and  spontaneous  movements  of 
human  thought  and  feeling  have  been  aided  and  cor- 
rected, and  their  legitimate  results  anticipated.  The 
conclusion  slowly  and  painfully  reached,  and  at  length 


ANALYSIS  OF  FAITH.  37 

attaining  clear  expression  only  in  the  minds  of  the 
philosophers  whose  moral  instincts  were  true,  that  the 
forces  of  nature  are  reducible  to  unity,  or  the  more 
vague  notion  reached  in  the  old  Polytheism,  referring 
all  change  to  a  supreme  Fate  lying  in  the  obscure, 
receives  correction,  or  amplification,  or  confirmation, 
in  the  story  of  the  Hebrew  people,  and  that  too  in  a 
slow  and  not  sudden  process,  elevating  their  notion  of 
a  tribal  divinity  to  that  of  the  Supreme  Jehovah,  in 
whose  mind  is  all  thought,  in  whose  hand  is  all 
power ; — so  that  this  conception  of  the  unity  of  the 
First  Principle,  held  clearly  in  Heathendom  only  in 
the  mind  of  the  philosophers,  comes  to  be  a  common 
possession  of  the  Hebrew  people.  Here  is  a  cor- 
rective to  the  methodless  vagaries  in  the  search  for 
unity,  which  has  been  somehow  supplied.  The  notions 
of  the  attributes,  omniscience,  omnipotence,  and 
omnipresence  are  at  first  secured,  and  referred  to  one 
Principle.  The  ethical  element  that  must  in  the  end 
be  seen  necessarily  to  accompany  these  is  in  their 
conception  gradually  supplied.  The  guiding  inter- 
ferences, if  allowed  to  be  such,  run  pari  passu  with 
the  natural  and  progressive  moral  development,  cor- 
recting it  when  needful,  but  not  incomprehensibly 
running-  ahead  of  it.  The  selected  race,  was  treated 
as  the  child  is  treated  by  the  human  parent.  The 
moral  law,  or  the  principle  of  love,  is  broken  into 
maxims  adapted  to  the  existing  stage  of  the  human 
progress.  At  first  we  have  prohibitions  simply,  con- 
firming the  conclusions  reached  by  human  prudence, 
and  implying  that  the  welfare  of  the  social  structure 
requires  subordination  of  the  individual  to  the  totality, 
and  obliges  sacrifice,  affirming  too  that  no  social  law 


38  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

can  be  violated  with  impunity,  any  more  than  any 
physical  law,  and  that  its  violation  is  to  be  met  by 
retribution.  These  negative  maxims  imply  a  positive 
principle,  which  is  at  length  clearly  descried,  the 
royal  law  of  love  to  God  and  man  receives  expres- 
sion, and  new  maxims  adapted  to  the  situation  are 
required  and  given,  till  at  length  the  whole  applica- 
tion of  the  Divine  law,  with  more  or  less  clearness 
and  correctness  becomes  the  property  of  the  common 
mind  of  the  race.  The  object-matter  of  faith  thus 
undergoes  clarification,  and  in  its  increasing  large- 
ness is  more  and  more  firmly  laid  hold  of,  and  be- 
comes a  more  and  more  powerful  stimulus  to  action. 
The  culminating  stage  of  Jewish  thought  thus  at- 
tained, and  through  this  external  aid  providentially 
adapted  to  the  conditions  of  possible  human  progress, 
is  that  idea  of  the  First  Principle  which  is  impregnable 
to  all  assaults,  annihilating  all  Polytheism  and  Dual- 
ism,— that  God  is  one,  that  the  forces  of  nature  are 
the  expression  of  the  Divine  will,  that  the  movements 
of  the  universe  are  an  harmonious  system  adapted 
to  human  thought,  and  that  a  benevolent  purpose 
runs  throughout  the  whole,  as  the  native  instincts  of 
men  longed  for  and  may  have  divined.  So  satisfac- 
tory is  this  object  of  faith  to  the  human  mind  and 
heart  that  new  religious  feelings  and  emotions  were 
rendered  possible.  We  find  trust  in  the  benevolence 
of  the  ruling  power  (at  least  for  the  selected  people), 
confidence  in  the  Divine  wisdom  in  spite  of  the  doubts 
of  both  suggested  still  by  experience,  submission  to 
the  Divine  direction.  We  have  such  faith  as  was 
shown  by  Abraham,  whose  whole  story,  while  yet 
human  and  not  faultless,  still  shows  the  ultimate  of 


" ANALYSIS  OF  FAITH.  39 

moral  and  religious  attainment  at  that  point  of  human 
progress,  and  warrants  the  praise  bestowed  upon  him. 
We  find  too  the  devout  utterances  of  David  and  the 
other  Psalmists,  which,  in  spite  of  their  imprecations, 
furnish  a  vehicle  of  devotion  approved  ever  since  by 
the  religious  mind.  In  the  writings  of  the  Hebrew 
prophets  the  religious  and  moral  elements  of  faith 
more  markedly  coalesce  with  each  other,  and  with  the 
metaphysical  element  ;  and  there  are  likewise  hints 
and  intimations  of  a  still  further  expansion  and 
correction. 

These  three  elements  of  faith,  as  I  have  said,  are 
never  separated  in  the  concrete.  Each  modifies  and 
corrects  each  other,  and  any  new  progress  amplifying 
the  object  of  faith  may  be  found  to  spring  from  either 
of  these  sources.  The  idea  of  God  may  be  improved 
by  advancing  human  thinking,  or  by  illumining  the 
moral  requirement,  or  by  making  more  definite,  easy, 
and  emphatic  the  religious  or  personal  relation.  In 
this  direction  there  is  no  limit  to  human  progress. 
The  ethical  relation  may  be  made  clearer  by  develop- 
ing the  content  of  the  moral  law  as  adapted  to  pro- 
gressive human  situations.  The  religious  relation 
may  acquire  strength  and  receive  surety  not  only 
from  the  profound  human  instinct,  more  and  more 
freed,  by  which  person  seeks  person,  and  adequate 
Person,  thus  illustrating  the  secret  of  absolute  Being, 
love  responding  to  Love  ; — but  also  from  the  manifold 
thought  of  God  exhibited  in  his  works,  and  found  by 
human  study,  which  likewise  may  react  upon  and  ren- 
der more  secure  the  ethical  relation,  as  well  as  make 
richer  and  firmer  the  religious  one. 

But  there  were  grave  defects  still  in  the  subjective 


40  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

holding  of  the  object-matter  of  faith,  as  well  as  in  such 
object-matter  itself.  Through  such  defects  the  He- 
brew life  so  often  poorly  illustrated  what  their  own 
belief  required.  The  object  of  faith,  and  hence  the 
subjective  holding,  may  be  elevated  to  a  still  higher 
plane.  At  the  stage  of  human  progress  under  inspec- 
tion, questions  are  sure  to  suggest  themselves  that  will 
require  an  answer,  and  make  possible  a  farther  ad- 
vance, or  a  lapse  backward,  and  which,  to  secure  the 
advance  and  render  more  wilful  the  lapse,  require  a 
new  Divine  interposition,  which  again  on  these  a 
priori  grounds  becomes  thinkable.  This  whole  fab- 
ric, erected  thus  for  human  thought,  feeling,  and 
activity,  may  be  sapped  by  doubt,  may  be  assaulted 
and  possibly  crumble  before  the  flood  of  the  disor- 
dered tendencies  concentred  by  human  thought,  un- 
less a  new  corrective  be  supplied,  and  a  further  insight 
into  the  Divine  Being,  who  is  still  to  be  an  object  of 
faith,  be  afforded.  Questions  will  begin  to  stir  requir- 
ing a  new  answer  ;  and,  as  before,  if  any  new  upward 
urging  of  mankind  be  possible,  there  will  be  seen  to 
have  been  hints  and  obscure  anticipations  of  it  in  the 
previous  stages  of  progress.  As  when  the  plant 
comes  to  be  known  there  is  found  to  have  been  hints 
of  it  in  the  phenomena  of  crystallization  ; — as  when 
the  animal  appears,  there  is  seen  to  have  been  hints 
of  its  beauty,  its  motion,  and  its  enjoyment  in  the 
vegetable  kingdom  ; — as  when  man  appears  there  are 
found  hints  and  anticipations  of  him  in  the  lower  ani- 
mal, sacrifice  shadowed  forth,  and  a  commonwealth 
suggested  ;  as  man  himself  thinks  of  and  craves  a 
higher  existence  for  himself,  in  which  he  will  rule  the 
lower  forces  and  not  be  mastered  by  them ; — so  the 


ANAL  YSIS  OF  FAITH.  41 

idea  of  himself  relative  to  the  universe  which  God  has 
manifested  hitherto  ; — this  synthesis  of  metaphysical, 
ethical,  and  religious  relations,  is  found  to  hint  of 
what  the  Divine  Being  is  in  itself,  which  knowledge 
is  needful  to  render  secure  the  confidence  that  these 
economical  relations  are  permanent  and  forever  to  be 
trusted  as  actual  and  true. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE    GROUND     FOR     THE     CHRISTIAN     REVELATION,    AND 
THE    POSSIBILITY    OF    CHRISTIAN    FAITH. 

When  by  human  thought  the  stage  in  the  appre- 
hension of  God  as  the  object  of  faith  exhibited  in  the 
foregoing  chapter  is  reached,  such  questions  as  these 
arise,  dimly  suggested  indeed  before,  but  now  receiv- 
ing clear  expression. 

(i)  Is  the  existence  of  the  universe  necessary  in 
order  to  furnish  a  field  in  which  the  First  Principle 
can  display  the  love  which  his  beneficence  suggests  ? 
Can  love  exist,  or  is  it  thinkable  without  having  an 
object?  Can  it  exist  without  reciprocity?  If  such 
object  comes  to  be  by  a  creative  act,  does  it  not  argue 
a  defect  before  ?  If  a  universe  is  needed  to  furnish  a 
sufficient  object,  must  it  not  have  existed  as  a.  plenum 
ab  initio,  i.  c,  have  exhibited  in  its  perfection  the 
Divine  paternity?  If  the  universe  is  a  developing 
process,  was  it  cyclical  and  did  it  repeat  itself  eternally, 
or  did  it  have  a  beginning  ?  And  if  so,  and  such  be- 
ginning breaking  into  change  displays  a  benevolent 
purpose,  is  such  a  purpose  arbitrary  and  indifferently 
free,  or  is  it  grounded  in  an  absolute  necessity,  and  thus 
as  originating  in  a  Person,  free  in  a  profounder  sense  ? 
Is  love  then  an  element,  or  an  immanent  relation  in 
the  First  Principle  itself,  and  therefore  a  necessary 

42 


CHRISTIAN  REVELA  TION.  43 

element  of  its  eternal  definition,  aside  from  any  man- 
ifestation in  a  developing  process  ? 

(2)  The  moral  law  is  what  it  is  in  reference  to  an 
ideal  end — a  commonwealth  of  loving,  thinking,  ex- 
panding subjects,  with  environment  correspondent, 
and  shows  itself  in  maxims  or  rules  adapted  to  the 
progressive  stages  of  human  development ; — is  it 
grounded  in  the  absolute  nature  or  structure  of  the 
Divine  Being,  or  is  it  simply  a  contrivance  to  keep 
his  own  creation  in  harmony,  and  save  it  from 
derangement,  failure,  or  destruction  ? 

(3)  The  power  displayed  in  the  universe,  matter  in 
motion,  does  it  require  a  Monistic  or  a  Dualistic  ex- 
planation ?  i.  e.,  is  the  "power  which  makes  for  right- 
eousness," the  recuperative  movement,  paramount,  or 
is  there  nowhere  perfect  peace,  no  token  or  symbol 
of  progress  that  can  have  no  successful  contradiction  ? 
Must  moral  evil  of  necessity  everlastingly  exist  ?  And 
if  its  prolonged  existence  is  still  thinkable,  what  must 
be  its  relation  to  any  environment  ? 

(4)  If  it  be  impossible  to  think  away  mind  from 
the  universe,  which  the  human  mind  acknowledges,  is 
such  mind  thinkable  except  under  the  conditions  of 
personality  ;  and  is  mind  as  subject,  relative  to  a  mind- 
less universe,  or  aggregation  of  matter,  as  object, 
a  sufficient  definition  of  personality  ?  Does  not  this 
require  likewise  the  notion  of  reciprocity  and  recogni- 
tion ? 

(5)  If  it  be  impossible  to  think  away  matter,  since 
we  only  know  mind  as  determined  by  it,  and  since  the 
consciousness  of  it  as  thus  determining  is  as  valid  and 
trustworthy  as  any  consciousness  of  pure  spirit,  if  such 
be  at  all  possible,  and  if  matter,  changing  by  temporal 


44  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

movement  and  development  is  variously  apprehended 
by  the  human  subject  according  to  his  progressive 
development,  which  apprehension  is  conditioned  by 
the  human  physical  organism  as  the  mediating  link, 
what  is  matter  to  the  perfect  vision,  what  is  it  to  the 
Divine  mind? — something  alien,  an  eternal  vA?j?  or 
has  it  pure  and  essential  form,  which  we  can  think 
as  such,  but  cannot  imagine,  since  undetermined  ? 

All  these  questions,  thus  or  otherwise  stated,  must 
sooner  or  later  arise  not  only  in  the  mind  of  the  Greek 
or  Hindoo  philosopher,  but  of  the  Hebrew  prophet 
or  sage ;  and  the  object  of  faith  as  a  loving,  all-wise, 
and  almighty  Person,  is  struck  into  doubtfulness,  or 
dimness,  permanent  or  fluctuating,  unless  some  cor- 
rective be  reached  or  supplied.  The  unaided  intel- 
lect may  indeed  narrow  its  own  field  of  speculation,  and 
reach  such  a  corrective,  indeed  must  reach  it  of  itself, 
to  have  it  become  a  corrective  indeed,  but  it  is  by  a 
slow  and  painful  process,  beset  by  formidable  occasions 
of  doubt,  and  subject  to  retrogressions.  A  new  stimu- 
lus and  corrective  to  human  endeavor  is  surely  needed 
and  here  indicated,  saving  toil,  strife,  doubt,  despair, 
but  not  freeing  from  these  entirely,  for  that  would  be 
to  lift  the  object  of  faith  beyond  the  region  of  faith, 
and  deprive  the  mental  recognition  of  moral  virtue, 
since  rendering  needless  or  impossible  any  growth  in 
spiritual  strength.  A  corrective  and  stimulus  sufficient 
to  repress  these  doubts,  and  ever  to  throw  doubt  upon 
the  ground  of  these  doubts,  for  the  common  mind  as 
well  as  for  the  thinking  mind,  and  which  can  furnish 
for  it  ground  for  the  object  of  its  faith  sufficiently  im- 
pregnable, yet  not  to  supersede  the  necessity  for  faith, 
is  thus  indicated,  as  a  valid  conclusion  for  one  acknowl- 


CHRISTIAN  REVELATION.  45 

edging  Divine  manifestation  theretofore.  And  the 
thinking  mind,  too,  may  find  its  tentatives  corrected 
and  aided,  and  test  its  conclusions  by  the  naive  and 
simple  faith  of  the  unreflecting,  or  rather  spontaneous- 
ly reflecting,  mind.  The  Divine  purpose  for  the 
world  cannot  put  its  own  acknowledgment  to  risk 
when  entrusting  it  only  to  the  deliberate  attainments 
of  the  human  intellect.  If  there  has  been  interference 
and  revelation  before,  it  is  superlatively  needed  now, 
in  such  shape  as  to  reply  to  these  enquiries,  as  to 
allay  these  anxieties,  as  to  urge  the  race  forward 
in  its  career  with  a  new  impetus,  as  to  illumine  the 
ultimate  purpose,  as  to  magnify,  clarify,  and  make 
penetrable  the  object  of  faith,  and  thus  intensify  the 
personal  or  religious  relation.  God,  who  has  thus  far 
taught  us  much  of  himself,  may  now  let  us  farther  into 
the  secret  of  his  being,  may  show  us  his  heart,  and  in 
doing  that  enable  us  rightly  to  think  his  mind,  may 
become  an  object  for  the  imagination,  and  for  the 
heart,  as  well  as  for  the  intellect,  and  appealing  thus 
to  all  the  human  faculties,  awaken  anticipation  of 
farther  progress  and  enrichment. 

All  which  was  done  by  God's  revelation  of  himself 
in  Jesus  Christ,  which  opens  for  us  a  glimpse  into  the 
intrinsic  being  of  the  Godhead,  its  necessary  structure, 
or  round  of  relations,  the  Unity  in  Trinity.  Here  we 
have  new,  higher,  sufficient,  and  satisfying  notions  of 
personality.  The  complete  condition  for  this,  and  its 
true  definition  is  seen  to  be  reciprocity.  Man's  heart 
responds  to  this  as  the  highest  truth,  any  thing  short 
of  which  would  be  still  imperfection.  Here  only  is 
found  absolute  harmony.  There  are  not  three  wills. 
That  is  the  Tritheistic  misconception.     But  the  one 


46  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

will,  in  the  complete  definition  of  will,  can  exist  only 
by  this  threefoldness.  Each  hypostasis  is  necessary 
to  the  being  of  each  other,  and  the  necessity  of  our 
thought  is  recognized  as  the  necessity  of  absolute 
Being.  There  is  and  can  be  nothing  simpler  than 
this  Trinity  in  Unity.  All  being  is  seen  to  be  com- 
plex, and  therefrom  a  fount  of  activity,  with  resources 
of  thought  inexhaustible.  In  the  universe,  indubi- 
tably, activity,  thought,  and  love  exist,  and  presuppose 
this  Trinity  in  Unity  as  their  eternal  ground.  From 
such  a  source  alone,  following  the  law  of  causality,  is 
a  universe,  manifesting  change,  thought,  and  love, 
thinkable  and  possible.  In  such  scheme  Christian 
thinking  claims  to  have  found  the  only  possible  satis- 
faction for  the  intellect,  and  all  doubt  of  it  is  seen  to 
turn  back  upon  and  contradict  itself.  Such  scheme 
defecates  itself  surely  of  all  troubling  doubts,  thus 
undergoes  slow  but  constant  illumination  ;  while  all 
other  schemes  appear  and  disappear  as  furnishing  no 
secure  intellectual  stay.  This  revelation,  which  the 
human  mind  can  follow  and  vindicate  (and  unless  it 
could  vindicate  it,  it  could  not  appropriate  it),  replies 
to  all  the  above  questions.  The  object  of  faith,  be- 
fore only  dimly  and  imperfectly  apprehended,  now 
displays,  not  its  entirety  (for  that  is  infinite  according 
to  the  human  mind's  own  absolute  requirement),  but 
its  innermost  secret.  God  is  seen  and  known  to  be 
loving .  in  his  essential  constitution  and  idea,  and 
becomes  an  object  for  faith  having  the  most  powerful 
ethical  influence,  and  yet  never  ceases  to  be  an  object 
of  faith,  for  the  obscurations  of  the  world  of  sense 
and  the  mystifications  of  the  adventurous  human 
mind  still  continue.     These  still  assault  both  the  un- 


CHRIS  TIA  N  RE  VELA  TION.  47 

thinking  and  the  thinking  portions  of  the  human  race. 
How  to  account  for  their  differing  attitudes  towards 
the  two  attractions,  to  belief  and  to  unbelief,  is  a  prob- 
lem of  exceeding  difficulty.  It  is  one  which  will 
forever  haunt  the  human  mind,  and  is  probably 
insoluble,  since  by  analysis  it  is  found  to  include  the 
interior  problem  of  the  origin  and  nature  of  moral 
evil,  insight  into  which,  as  I  have  said,  is  unattainable 
at  the  present  stage  of  human  progress,  and  would  be 
no  boon,  since  it  would  quiet  all  the  struggles  of  faith, 
and  deprive  it  of  the  conditions  to  show  and  acquire 
the  strength  needed  for  perfect  moral  recovery. 

From  all  this  it  appears  that  the  new  light  thus  im- 
parted has  not  changed  the  nature  of  faith  as  a  subjec- 
tive relation.  The  metaphysical,  ethical,  and  religious 
elements  of  its  definition  still  remain.  What  has  been 
accomplished  has  been  the  illumination  and  expansion 
of  its  object,  whereby  it  becomes  not  only  perfectly 
satisfactory  for  the  intellect,  but  meets  the  instinctive 
want  and  longing  of  the  heart,  furnishing  thus  a  new 
religious  bond,  and  hence  eliciting  a  new  and  the 
most  powerful  motive-spring.  Man  does  not,  indeed 
cannot,  aim  to  be  any  thing  higher  than  he  thinks  the 
First  Principle  of  the  universe  to  be.  If  this  is  thought 
as  a  mere  arbitrary  will,  however  wise  and  mighty, 
man  will  worship  only  this  synthesis  of  might  and 
wisdom,  and  regulate  his  conduct  accordingly.  That 
his  own  instincts  strain  sometimes  after  something 
other,  shows  that  the  First  Principle  is  not  and 
cannot  be  permanently  thought  as  this  and  no  more. 
If  man  thinks  him,  then,  as  loving  in  his  essential  be- 
ing, his  response  will  be  likewise  loving.  If  He  shows 
himself   as   limiting   himself,  and   that   sacrifice   has 


48  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

come  to  be  the  form  of  that  love,  because  of  the 
contradiction,  man's  response  will  be  also  sacrificial. 
We  may  say,  then,  that  through  the  revelation  of 
Jesus  Christ,  the  Godhead  in  its  essential  constitu- 
tion or  true  being,  is  now  presented  as  the  object  of 
faith,  and  hence  that  Christian  faith  is  the  ultimate 
form  of  faith,  beyond  which  is  no  further  illumination 
or  expansion,  as  any  further  step  would  elevate  it  into 
knowledge.  Only  as  such  object  of  faith,  and  not  yet 
of  sight,  can  it  call  forth  a  sufficient  response,  does  it 
supply  the  most  efficient  motive-spring,  and  such  as 
can  issue  in  human  recovery.  We  cannot  think  any 
secret  of  the  Divine  Being  deeper  than  this  sacrificial 
love.  We  may  study  the  Divine  works,  and  thus  am- 
plify our  conception  of  him,  deepen  our  conviction  of 
his  benevolence,  and  be  enabled  to  descry  more  and 
more  clearly  his  ultimate  purpose  ;  which  process  may 
go  on  ceaselessly,  and  which  endless  time  would  never 
exhaust ;  but  the  personal  relation  subsists  the  same 
through  all  the  increments  or  diminutions  of  knowl- 
edge, and  affects  conduct  as  completely  be  they  much 
or  little.  This  revelation  of  himself  as  essentially  lov- 
ing comes  in  such  a  shape  as  appeals  to  the  simple 
mind  and  heart, — not  in  the  shape  of  an  intellectual 
proposition  (however  it  may  do  that  thereafter),  but  by 
appeals  to  its  own  possible  love,  and  by  exhibiting  to 
sense  and  imagination  a  concrete  illustration  and 
proof  of  the  Divine  Love.  The  Incarnation  and  sacri- 
ficial Atonement  of  Jesus  Christ  can  be  so  stated  as 
to  reach  the  simplest  capacity,  and  God  thus  be 
reached  and  grasped.  To  preach  the  gospel  is  to  call 
upon  men  to  do  this.  To  believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  is  to  do  this.    As  an  act  of   responsive  love 


CHRIS  TIA  N  RE  VELA  TION.  49 

it  makes  God  a  reality,  affecting  conduct  as  not  before, 
creates  thus  a  new  mental  relation,  and  gives  birth  to 
a  host  of  new  feelings — gratitude,  trust,  and  the  im- 
pulse to  worship.  There  is  implicit  in  this  faith  the 
holy  will,  for  there  is  nothing  holier  than  responsive 
love,  which  because  the  love  that  called  it  forth  was 
sacrificial  meets  it  in  the  form  of  sacrifice,  and  all 
things  are  forsaken  to  follow  Christ.  "  As  I  have 
loved  you,  so  ought  ye  to  love  one  another."  The 
world  with  its  attractions  is  given  up  as  a  supreme  ob- 
ject, is  no  longer  an  end  but  a  means.  This  personal 
tie  fastens  the  whole  complex  relation  amid  the  temp- 
tations astray,  and  shows  itself  as  trust  or  confidence. 
The  deep  conviction  that  now  the  normal  relation  be- 
tween God  and  the  human  subject  is  at  length  reached, 
causes  the  Christian  mind  to  be  jealous  of  all  attempts 
to  distort,  and  thus  subtly  to  change  the  object-matter 
on  which  it  rests  and  depends,  and  so  it  becomes  zeal- 
ous and  careful  for  the  truth,  and  seeks  ever  to  fix  it 
in  such  objective  formulas  as  will  furnish  a  guide 
and  corrective  for  the  human  intellect  still  abiding 
in  the  strife,  and  subtly  tempted  to  derange  the  ob- 
ject-matter of  faith.  Here  is  the  explanation  of  the 
much-decried  attempt  at  Dogmatic  formulation  ; 
which  arises  thus  from  an  honest  and  true  instinct. 
This  attempt  is  felt  to  be  a  need  in  our  imperfect 
state,  however  much  it  may  have  been  abused.  There 
must  be  a  definite  object  for  the  mind  as  well  as  for 
the  heart,  and  the  thinking  must  still  endeavor  after 
its  complete  attainment.  It  is  as  illegitimate  and  shal- 
low to  resolve  the  complex  relation  which  is  Christian 
faith  into  a  purely  ethical  one,  or  a  purely  religious 
one,  as  into  a  purely  intellectual  one.     There  is  no 

Vol.  II. 


50  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

separation  of  these  three,  as  we  hope  we  have  suc- 
ceeded in  showing.  Such  attempted  separation  gives 
an  imperfect  and  unsatisfying  definition,  as  does  like- 
wise any  statement  of  these  in  other  than  right  rela- 
tion. Because  faith  is  a  religious  act,  it  is  a  moral  act 
in  its  perfection,  and  a  mental  relation  in  its  truth. 
To  the  common  mind  and  heart  it  is  a  personal  tie, 
and  it  is  no  other  for  the  thinking  mind,  however 
much  be  superadded.  Nay,  should  even  that  which  is 
superadded  be  confusing,  bewildering,  erroneous,  or 
contradictory,  the  personal  tie  which  has  coalesced 
with  the  ethical  relation  may  still  remain  in  its  integ- 
rity and  vigor ;  and  one  whose  whole  system  of  think- 
ing about  Christian  truth  is  faulty  or  wrong,  may  still 
have  the  essential  elements  of  Christian  faith,  viz., 
the  personal  tie  with  God  as  revealing  himself  in  the 
form  of  sacrificial  love,  through  Jesus  Christ,  even 
though  Jesus  Christ  be  otherwise  wrongly  thought. 
But  this  does  not  render  it  less  necessary  that  He  be 
rightly  thought,  if  the  tendency  to  doubt  and  error  is 
to  be  arrested,  if  the  motive-spring  of  responsive  love 
is  to  exist  in  its  purity  and  strength,  and  human  con- 
duct be  directed  into  right  channels  of  activity,  such 
as  will  not  furnish  contradiction,  to  be  overcome  by 
Divine  providence,  but  harmonize  with  it,  and  thus 
hasten  on  the  consummation. 

The  old  controversies  about  the  relation  of  faith 
and  works  hardly  exist  any  longer,  and  need  not  de- 
tain us.  Faith  as  implicit  love  must  as  such  manifest 
activity  of  a  new  kind,  not  only  in  overt  actions,  but 
as  having  new  ends  and  motives.  Whatever  resolves 
and  deeds  flow  from  these  may  be  called  Christian 
works,  instinctively  and  subjectively  right,  but  objec- 


CHRISTIAN  REVELA  TION.  51 

tively  capable  of  correction  and  needing  light  and  guid- 
ance. The  ultimate  end  is  the  same  as  that  set  be- 
fore faith,  before  or  aside  from  the  advent  of  Christ. 
The  moral  effort,  when  rightly  analyzed,  has  every- 
where the  same  purpose,  the  commonwealth  of  love, 
which  alone  constitutes  right  moral  action  ;  but  to  at- 
tain this  end,  there  has  been  furnished  a  new  motive- 
spring,  no  longer  merely  the  moral  judgment  and 
sense  sanctioning  the  rules  which  human  moral  expe- 
rience has  put  forth,  but  this  judgment  and  sense 
transfigured  into  a  personal  tie  rendered  possible  by 
God  himself  coming  within  the  sphere  of  sense  and 
imagination.  Thus  in  one  sense  Christian  morality 
is  identical  with  all  other  true  morality,  yet  in  another 
sense  different  from  it.  It  is  the  same  as  the  end  is 
the  same,  yet  in  Christian  morality  this  is  clearly  seen, 
and  becomes  explicit,  while  before  it  was  mainly  im- 
plicit. The  rules  and  maxims  are  in  many  respects 
the  same  ;  yet  the  whole  plan  of  life  which  governs 
and  unifies  human  action  is  widely  different,  since  it 
respects  the  declared  Divine  plan  and  purpose.  No 
Christian  life  can  be  planned  irrespective  of  the  aim 
of  Christ's  Church.  The  subjective  relation  is  the 
same  so  far  as  it  is  acquiescence  in  a  law  seen  to  be 
Divine,  but  it  becomes  something  other  than  rever- 
ence for  an  abstract  law,  and  ever  tends  to  rise  above 
the  need  of  law,  and  resolve  wilful  acquiescence  into 
spontaneity.  "  Hitherto  I  have  called  you  servants, 
but  henceforth  I  call  you  friends." 

It  is  evident  that  when  the  New-Testament  writers 
speak  of  faith  in  Christ,  or  faith  in  God  as  having 
manifested  himself  in  Jesus  Christ,  what  is  uppermost 
in  their  minds  in  such  manifestation  is  the  supreme, 


52  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

decisive,  and  liberating  triumph  of  love,  the  sacrifice 
of  the  Cross,  Jesus'  death  as  the  culminating  proof  of 
the  Divine  Love.  They  illustrate  in  such  speech 
their  Lord's  own  words  :  "  And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up, 
will  draw  all  men  to  me."  This  is  the  most  powerful 
appeal  ever  made,  or  that  could  be  made  to  the 
human  will.  It  appeals  primarily  to  human  sym- 
pathy, to  the  heart's  profoundest  longing,  to  be  loved 
and  to  love,  and  imagination  is  at  the  service  of  such 
sympathy.  It  appeals  to  the  human  intellect  as  the 
alone  satisfying  solution  of  the  problem  of  existence, 
and  makes  human  convictions  square  vibratingly  with 
human  hopes,  that  the  unseen  power  is  not  only  force 
and  mind  but  heart.  It  appeals  to  the  ethical  element, 
and  makes  sacrifice  not  only  willing  but  glad.  That 
the  human  heart  does  not  everywhere  leap  up  with 
welcome  to  meet  this  reaching  out  of  the  Divine  heart 
is  the  saddest  yet  most  incontestable  proof  of  the 
ravages  of  the  contradicting  principle.  That  men 
strive  to  be  content  with  the  solution  that  an  iron 
mechanism,  or  an  arbitrary  will,  or  a  logical  process 
is  abstractly  the  explanation  of  the  riddle  of  existence, 
and  not  a  loving  heart,  severe  though  benevolent,  is 
the  profoundest  reality  and  evidence  of  the  doctrine 
that  unbelief  is  the  right  description  and  cause  of 
human  aberrancy,  and  that  in  belief  alone  is  its  cure. 
But  if  the  philosophical  doctrine  of  mystical  influence, 
which  is  identical  with  the  Christian  doctrine  of  grace, 
be  truly  grounded,  these  even  can  be  reached  and 
corrected.  And  our  knowledge  of  it  can  by  no  means 
be  thought  to  exhaust  the  possibilities  of  providen- 
tial influence  or  interference.  Man  is  never  at  such 
risk  of  error  as  when  he  presumes  to  make  moral 


CHRIS  TIA  N  RE  VELA  TION.  5  3 

judgments,  and  to  condemn  and  pronounce  sentence 
before  he  knows.  This  has  been  the  great  Christian 
weakness,  and  has  brought  Christian  dogmas  into  dis- 
repute— that  men  have  usurped  the  function  of  judg- 
ment, which,  above  all  things,  requires  the  Divine 
omniscience.  "Judge  nothing  before  the  time." 
This  rash  and  arbitrary  dealing  with  the  Divine 
rewards  and  punishments,  as  though  their  key  and 
their  method  were  discoverable  for  human  knowledge, 
has  not  rendered  the  preaching  of  Christ  more,  but 
rather  less,  attractive.  This  is  the  feebleness  of 
dogmatism,  which  has,  however,  on  the  other  side  its 
secure  strength.  But  this  matter  will  be  dealt  with 
at  length  hereafter,  when  we  come  to  treat  of  the 
Divine  Judgment. 

Christian  faith,  as  thus  now  analyzed  and  defined, 
has  come  to  exist,  through  the  addition  to  the  essential 
elements  of  all  faith  of  the  new  element  rendered 
possible  by  the  Incarnation  and  the  Atoning  sacrifice 
of  Jesus  Christ ;  and  has  made  possible  and  actual  a 
new  and  unique  relation  between  the  human  subject 
and  God.  The  theological  name  of  this  relation  is 
Justification,  a  word  whose  meaning  has  been  much 
disputed.  But  let  us  go  back  and,  without  using  the 
word,  resume  the  history  of  the  liberating  process,  as 
indicated  by  what  has  gone  before,  and  see  thereafter 
to  what  act,  or  relation,  or  process,  or  whether  to  all 
these  combined,  this  word  may  be  wisely  applied, 
and  was  applied  by  the  New-Testament  writers. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

JUSTIFICATION. 

Christian  faith,  by  whatever  prevenient  grace  and 
providential  arrangement  conditioned,  is  an  act  and 
relation  of  the  will,  and  as  such  originates  in  man 
himself.  Responsibility  presupposes  freedom.  As 
was  said  before,  the  last  ground  of  the  difference  in 
human  choice  cannot  be  traced  out  by  the  human  in- 
tellect. It  requires  no  explanation  that  man  should 
make  the  choice  for  the  good.  That  is  but  rising 
according  to  the  central  instincts  and  attraction  of  his 
being,  the  tendency  Godward,  the  return  of  the 
radiated  particle  to  the  radiating  sun.  The  inex- 
plicable thing  is  that  any  should  choose  otherwise ; 
not  that  the  human  being  should  often  do  what  is 
objectively  wrong  and  contradictory,  for  that  is  but  a 
mistake  of  the  judgment  and  comes  from  insufficient 
foresight ;  but  that  he  should  deliberately  reject  the 
universal  end,  and  connect  himself  to  an  individual 
end, — seeing  that  this  narrows  the  whole  scope  of  his 
being,  and  begins  a  process  of  spiritual  shrinking  to 
end  in  utter  poverty  of  resources. 

And  yet,  while  Christian  faith  must  be  thought  to  be 
a  human  act,  in  and  by  which,  as  giving  a  new  rule 
to  life,  all  overt  activity  is  thenceforward  determined, 
it  may  also  be  thought  as  a  Divine  act,  seeing  that 
therein  and  therefor  God  concentrates  the  providen- 

54 


JUSTIFICA  TION.  5  5 

tial  environment,  and  the  mystical  grace  upon  the 
selected  subject.  It  may  thus  be  said  to  be  a  joint 
act  of  God  and  man,  which  accomplishes  a  new  rela- 
tion between  them.  If  this  new  relation  is  to  issue 
in  human  recovery,  it  must  be  by  its  setting  in  activity 
all  the  recuperating  forces,  which  thenceforward  must 
act  upon  the  human  subject  in  the  entirety  of  his 
structure,  upon  every  element  or  aspect  of  his  being, 
religious,  ethical,  intellectual,  physical.  These  forces 
(so  called)  have  already  accomplished  their  intended 
result,  perfection,  in  the  person  of  Christ,  the  new 
starting-point,  the  beginning  of  a  regenerated  hu- 
manity. To  this,  then,  the  individual  subject  must 
be  so  connected  that  the  recuperative  forces  may 
reach  him  therefrom  thus  in  his  entirety,  and  their 
process  be  discoverable,  thinkable,  and  describable  as 
reaching  every  such  element  of  his  complex  being. 
The  will  must  be  reached,  and  in  faith  has  been 
reached,  and  set  right  in  the  ethico-religious  relation, 
and  influences  from  Christ  must  come  to  strengthen 
it  in  its  new  attitude.  The  intellect  has  been  set 
right  as  having  seized  now  the  central  element  of  the 
Divine  idea,  and  influences  from  the  same  source  may 
further  enlarge  and  clarify  this  object  of  faith.  This 
corrected  idea  conditions  all  other  knowledge,  and 
without  it  the  cohering  principle  of  all  truth  is  not 
seized.  And  man's  physical  being,  likewise,  must 
begin  to  be  loosened  from  the  contradicting  and 
downward  tendencies,  and  have  begun  the  process  of 
its  liberation  and  perfection.  Regeneration  respects 
the  entire  synthesis  which  constitutes  the  human 
being,  and  no  one  element  of  it  alone,  or  it  could  not 
rightly  be  so  named.     It  is  a  literally  true  and  not  a 


56  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

figurative  expression.  A  new  birth  must  issue  in  a 
new  creature,  in  all  the  combined  elements  of  his 
complex  being.  And  the  whole  environment,  which 
furnishes  the  material  to  be  assimilated  and  wrought 
up  into  character,  must  be  adapted  to  accomplish  the 
end  of  such  regenerative  process. 

Whether  or  not  for  grand  economical  ends  man  has 
not  been  and  should  not  be  taught  not  only  to  signal- 
ize and  confess  his  faith  by  an  overt  act  ; — but  also  to 
look  for  the  commencement  and  continuation  of  the 
regenerative  process  to  such  overt  act  and  similar 
acts  (which  is  the  occasion  for  the  Christian  sacra- 
ments), is  a  question  that  will  be  considered  at  length 
hereafter. 

But  we  see  that  while  the  new  relation  between 
God  and  man  may  thus  be  thought  as  a  permanent  or 
timeless  one,  and  as  an  abstract  one  may  require  a 
name,  it  is  realized  in  a  time-process,  for  though  the 
subjective  condition  be  presented,  the  substratum 
laid,  and  the  central  fountain  of  the  regenerating  cur- 
rents be  started  in  flow,  human  recovery,  concretely, 
is  not  instantaneous.  The  consequences  of  sin,  the 
result  of  the  former  abnormal  relation,  are  to  be  an- 
nulled, and  go  on  to  their  extinction,  and  this  pari 
passu  with  the  harmonization  of  the  entire  being,  the 
bringing  around  of  all  spontaneous  tendencies  and 
habits  into  agreement  with  the  holy  will.  Thus  this 
new  and  abstract  relation  is  made  real  in  a  process, 
which  by  abstraction  may  be  regarded  as  either  nega- 
tive or  positive,  but  which  is  concretely  both,  each 
conditioning  the  other. 

The  name  of  this  new  relation  is  Justification ;  the 
name  of  the  negative  process  is  the  Remission  or  Par- 


J  US  TIFICA  TION.  5  7 

don  of  sin  ;  the  name  of  the  positive  process  is  Sancti- 
fication  ;  and  the  name  of  the  whole  process  regarded 
as  vital  and  reconstructive  is  Regeneration. 

If  this  relation  and  these  processes  be  rightly- 
thought  as  conditioning  each  other,  it  is  a  matter  of 
doctrinal  indifference  whether  the  names  be  or  be  not 
rightly  bestowed.  One  may  have  been  trained  to  call 
either  relation  or  process  by  the  name  which  properly 
belongs  to  some  other,  and  controversy  here  be  mere 
logomachy.  But  while  to  fix  the  meaning  of  these 
words  according  to  their  use  in  the  New  Testament 
belongs  primarily  to  Exegesis,  it  is  incumbent  upon 
Doctrinal  Theology  to  harmonize  with  the  same  in 
their  use.  But  even  though  here  dispute  may  con- 
tinue, it  is  a  point  gained  to  find  the  doctrinal  use  of 
these  and  such  words  self-consistent  and  suggestive  of 
clear  thought,  even  though  men  continue  to  argue 
upon  the  Scriptural  use  of  the  same.  The  present 
author  thinks  that  the  interpretation  of  these  words 
given  above  is  not  only  helpful  to  clarify  thought,  but 
is  needed  to  harmonize  the  utterances  of  the  New 
Testament ;  that  this  was  the  scheme  of  thought  in 
the  mind  of  the  Scripture  authors,  even  though  they 
may  have  used  the  words,  at  times,  with  more  laxity 
or  latitude  of  meaning. 

That  Regeneration,  if  it  be  really  descriptive  and 
not  a  misleading  figure,  is  a  process  having  a  begin- 
ning and  a  termination,  seems  self-evident,  and  thus 
the  word  may  be  legitimately  applied  either  to  this 
process  itself,  or  to  its  beginning,  or  to  its  end.  As 
something  occurring  in  the  human  subject  it  is  a  pre- 
cise analogue  or  repetition  of  what  took  place  in  the 
human  nature  of  Jesus  Christ.     The  conception  of 


58  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

Jesus  by  the  special  activity  of  the  Holy  Spirit  has 
its  analogue  in  the  new  birth  by  water  and  the  Spirit. 
The  progressive  illumination  of  the  mind  of  Jesus  has 
its  analogue  in  the  growth  and  unique  character  of 
Christian  experience  and  knowledge.  The  progres- 
sive glorification  of  Jesus'  body,  culminating  in  the 
resurrection  and  ascension,  has  its  analogue  in  a 
similar  process  being  accomplished  in  the  faithful 
Christian.  The  regenerative  process  may  also  be 
thought  to  reach  and  include  the  whole  uricis,  since 
the  glorification  of  the  whole  body  of  the  redeemed 
can  only  be  thought  as  a  new  relation  to  the  environ- 
ment, which  thus  assumes  its  normal  relation  to  the 
purified  and  perfected  organism,  or  commonwealth  of 
spiritual  souls. 

In  like  manner,  giving  the  name  of  Justification  to 
the  abstract  relation,  which  is  actualized  in  the  double 
process  of  extinguishing  the  consequences  of  foregone 
sin,  and  assimilating  the  character  to  God's  own 
character,  this  double  or  two-sided  process  may  be 
regarded  as  potential  in  the  stirring  of  the  new  forces 
set  in  play  when  the  believer  comes  into  religious 
and  sacramental  union  with  Christ ;  and  the  expres- 
sion, "  pardon  of  sin,"  be  used  in  reference  to  this 
primal  act  on  God's  part,  and  the  believer  be  called 
"  holy  "  at  the  start,  since  the  central  principle  of  his 
further  development  is  now  holy.  The  New-Testa- 
ment writers  use  these  words  in  all  these  senses, 
which  do  not  contradict  each  other,  but  can  be  readily 
harmonized  in  thought  when  once  we  have  the  right 
key.  To  say,  then,  that  faith  justifies, — that  faith 
alone  justifies, — that  faith  and  works  justify, — that 
baptism  justifies, — that  God  justifies,  are  not  contra- 


JUSTIFICA  TION.  59 

dictory  or  inconsistent  expressions,  but  all  can  be 
readily  harmonized,  and  each  one  expresses  rightly 
one  aspect  of  the  entire  complex  truth.  All  is  of  God's 
work,  who  alone  has  prepared  the  conditions,  therefore, 
and,  most  strictly  speaking,  God  alone  justifies,  i.  e.t 
treats  as  -just,  in  the  carrying  out  of  his  entire  benevo- 
lent purpose.  But  God  does  not  degrade  his  highest 
creature  into  passivity,  but  respects  his  freedom,  there- 
fore faith,  as  a  human  act,  is  the  conditio  sine  qud  nony 
on  the  part  of  the  human  subject,  which  faith  brings 
in  its  train  holy  conduct,  and  conditions  the  pardon- 
ing and  sanctifying  processes  ; — thus  it  may  be  rightly 
said  that  faith  alone  justifies,  i.  e.,  presents  the  sub- 
jective condition  for  new  treatment  on  God's  part. 
And  when  faith  is  regarded  as  a  spiritual  act  of  re- 
sponsive love,  which  meets  the  Divine  Love,  grasps 
the  outreaching  hand  of  God,  and  heart  flows  into 
heart,  it  may  be  rightly  called  "  the  instrument  of  Jus- 
tification "  (another  phrase  in  use).  And  as  all  holy 
deeds  are  potential  in  this  new  love,  and  since  human 
endeavor  after  systematization,  or  even  human  per- 
versity, may  abstract  the  religious  and  ethical  elements 
of  Christian  faith,  and  choose  to  regard  it  as  only  an 
intellectual  relation  (which  was  the  propensity  St 
James  had  in  mind),  it  may  be  wise  to  insist  upon  the 
phrase  that  "  faith  and  works  justify,"  or  that  "  faith 
working  by  love  justifies."  And  as  Justification  is 
made  real  in  a  concrete  process,  which  process  is 
summed  up  in  the  notion  of  regeneration,  which  re- 
generation to  be  complete  must  respect  the  entire 
organism,  the  whole  body  of  sanctified  ones  ;  and 
since  this  process  of  leavening  the  new  human  stock 
must  be  carried  on  visibly  and  providentially  as  well 


V 


60  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

as  mystically, — since  the  very  principle  of  love  is  ex- 
pansion and  assimilation,  and  it  is  impelled  by  inhe- 
rent sympathy  into  consociation,  and  there  must  in 
consequence  be  a  visible  election,  a  Church,  drawing 
all  its  members  by  one  bond  to  a  common  centre ; 
and  as  this  body,  to  be  visible,  must  have  marks  or 
tokens  not  changeable  according  to  human  caprice  or 
mistake,  and  since  Christian  believers  have  been  there- 
fore commanded  so  to  consociate,  and  to  confess 
their  Master  before  men  in  a  prescribed  way  ;  since 
thus  the  initiatory  rite  of  Christianity  may  thus,  for 
its  economical  ends  only,  have  its  vindication,  and 
to  be  thus  binding  and  likewise  attractive  must  have 
its  benefit  and  result  indicated  ; — if  while  indeed  God 
only  can  regenerate,  man  may  be  taught  to  look  to 
some  act  as  the  condition  for  and  the  means  to  start 
his  regeneration,  therefore  it  becomes  legitimate  also 
to  say, — that  Baptism  justifies. 

To  be  justified  means  to  be  considered  and  treated 
as  just,  i.  e.,  righteous.  If  man  is  radically  and  po- 
tentially righteous  by  virtue  of  Christian  faith,  having 
now  the  only  spring  of  true  righteousness,  he  is 
thenceforward  so  treated.  The  consequences  of  hu- 
man sin  are  by  steps  and  degrees  annulled.  His  par- 
don is  sealed  indeed  through  his  act  of  faith,  but  his 
pardon  is  shown  not  by  his  sudden  but  by  his  gradual 
emancipation  from  the  retributive  consequences  of 
his  past  sin.  All  suffering  whatever  is  such  a  conse- 
quence ;  and  his  suffering  does  not  immediately  pass, 
but  continues  even  after  his  pardon,  but  it  is  robbed 
of  its  poignancy,  make-weights  are  supplied,  and  it 
goes  on  to  its  extinction.  And  while  it  continues  it 
subserves   a  benevolent  purpose,   becomes   chastise- 


JUSTIFICATION.  61 

ment,  and  is  felt  and  acknowledged  to  be  the  severity 
only  of  Love,  the  means  of  purification  and  strength. 
The  whole  providential  environment  may  then  be 
thought  to  be  so  adapted  and  fitted  to  the  needs  of 
the  character  as  to  be  a  benevolent  urging  towards 
the  required  perfection.  Thus  and  thus  only  does 
God  pardon  sin,  and  Christians  are  accustomed  to 
trace  and  to  welcome  this  his  method  in  their  own 
experience.  To  pardon  sin  is  the  Divine  prerogative 
only,  since  it  requires  omniscience  and  omnipotence, 
not  only  to  know  the  inmost  recesses  of  human 
character,  and  the  recondite  individual  needs,  but  to 
have  all  the  resources  and  powers  of  the  universe  at 
command.  That  all  this  complex  of  natural  forces, 
that  seems  so  blind  and  bewildering,  is  yet  ruled  by 
a  loving  purpose,  and  adapted  to  the  particular 
needs  of  every  soul,  whether  showing  itself  in  bless- 
ing, or  in  punishment  or  chastisement,  this  is  a  truth 
a  priori  seen  to  be  undeniable  and  impregnable  ;  but 
which  so  eludes  the  imagination  and  the  understand- 
ing that  it  furnishes  the  main  conflict  of  faith  for  the 
Christian  soul,  which  is,  however,  reconciled  to  such 
conflict,  since  it  finds  its  faith  strengthened  by  such 
trial.  But  this  negative  process,  called  the  Remission 
of  sin,  and  accomplished  by  these  providential  ar- 
rangements, can  only  be  rightly  thought  by  regarding 
also  its  positive  side,  or  the  sanctification  of  the  char- 
acter, to  understand  which  we  must  consider  not  only 
the  providential  and  in  a  degree  intelligible  influences, 
but  the  mystical  ones  as  well — which  thus  becomes  a 
much  profounder  subject  for  meditation. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

SANCTIFICATION,    AND   THE   INTIMATIONS  OF   THE  CHRIS- 
TIAN   CHURCH. 

To  sanctify  is  to  make  holy.  Holiness  is  free 
obedience,  therefore  only  predicable,  primarily,  of  a 
rational  being,  and  in  its  perfection  or  absolute  truth 
is  pure  spontaneity,  or  righteousness  without  effort 
or  struggle.  Hence  God  alone  is  essentially  holy. 
All  other  holiness  has  required  effort  and  the  acquisi- 
tion by  steps  and  degrees  of  the  needed  spiritual 
strength.  As  all  being,  thought,  and  power  are 
lodged  in  God  from  the  absolute  and  eternal  syn- 
thesis which  constitutes  the  essence  of  the  Godhead, 
no  creature  as  such  can  be  at  once  perfectly  holy. 
He  may  be  simply  good  by  following  the  implanted 
tendencies  of  his  being,  arranged  thus  in  conformity 
with  the  absolute  ends  of  God.  But  such  a  creature 
would  be  a  lesser  being  than  man,  whose  idea  is  a 
self-determining  being,  and  so  only  is  he  an  image  of 
God.  Holiness  therefore  expresses  the  normal,  ideal 
relation  of  the  highest  creature  to  God,  and  requires 
that  it  shall  have  been  reached  by  self-determining 
effort.  This  is  true  whatever  conditions  of  grace  or 
favor,  providential  and  mystical,  be  thought  necessary. 
To  determine  himself  thus  the  creature  must  have  a 
sphere,  an  environment  supplying  material  for  the 
growth,    enrichment,    and    expansion    of    his   being. 

62 


SANCTIFICA  TION.  63 

And  the  entire  environment  we  have  shown  includes 
mystical  relations,  or  the  activity  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
in  perpetual  adaptation  to  and  correspondence  with 
the  providential  conditions,  thus  perfecting  the  syn- 
thesis. To  think  man  as  made  holy  in  spite  of  him- 
self, to  suppose  mere  passivity  here,  is  to  avoid  the 
meaning  of  the  word,  is  a  contradiction.  So  to  think 
the  human  being  is  to  degrade  him  and  not  to  elevate 
him.  He  would  no  longer  correspond  to  our  highest 
idea  of  a  creature.  That  his  holiness  is  to  be  acquired 
by  spiritual  strength  requires  the  possibility  and  pres- 
ence of  alternatives,  of  adverse  solicitations,  of  tempta- 
tion, and  the  deliberate  rejection  of  individual  ends, 
and  gradual  conformity  to  the  universal  end,  not  only 
by  finding  its  idea  more  and  more  attractive  and 
beautiful,  but  by  the  strengthening  by  habit  the  spon- 
taneous tendency  which  harmonizes  with  it,  and  leads 
towards  its  realization.  To  make  the  seeming  in- 
voluntary trend  of  the  entire  being  correspond  with 
the  voluntary  and  conscious  end  and  means,  de- 
liberately chosen,  so  that  the  conscious  and  uncon- 
scious coalesce  in  a  higher  consciousness,  is  the  per- 
fection of  freedom,  is  real  freedom,  which  is  thus 
identical  with  pure  will  or  moral  necessity. 

Christian  holiness  must  primarily  be  thought  as 
respecting  the  will  in  its  narrower  signification.  It  is 
in  its  inception  faith  in  Christ,  or  love  yielding  to  the 
attraction  of  love,  which  therefore,  so  far  as  it  knows, 
here  sets  itself  the  same  end  as  that  of  the  Creator 
and  Redeemer,  which  thus  unifies  all  the  means.  But 
as  this  faith  or  love  has  to  struggle  with  contradicting 
appetencies,  it  cannot  entrust  itself  or  be  trusted  to  its 
own  spontaneity.    Its  guide  is  indeed  the  law  of  Love, 


64  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

i.  e.,  no  law,  but  an  ideal.  But  this  cannot  be  realized 
under  the  disordered  conditions  which  derange  and 
sway  the  thought-processes,  unless  it  be  stated  in  the 
form  of  prescriptions,  or  laws  proper,  adapted  to 
man's  progressive  state.  This  is  true  both  in  the 
sphere  of  morality  and  in  that  of  religion,  when 
thought  apart,  the  absolute  ends  of  which  are,  how- 
ever, identical.  The  Christian  believer  takes  as  his 
guide  the  principle  of  Love  indeed,  and  uses  this  as  a 
test  and  corrective  of  all  prescriptions ;  but,  knowing 
the  imperfection  of  his  own  foresight,  respects  not  only 
the  maxims  of  morality  which  the  deliberate  thought 
of  the  wisest  of  mankind  have  put  forth,  often  as  merely 
prudential,  but  sometimes  also  in  consequence  of  the 
instinctive  sense  or  judgment  that  they  are  true 
deductions  and  applications  of  an  absolute  law,  or 
ideal  end ;  but  he  respects,  likewise,  the  religious  pre- 
scriptions, which  not  only  indicate  that  He  who  re- 
deemed mankind  has  vast  providential  designs  which 
his  disciples  can  only  imperfectly  descry  and  under- 
stand, but  also  that  for  the  Christian's  individual 
development  and  perfection  he  is  in  need  of  influences 
and  changes  other  than  he  can  understand.  His  will 
being  thus  set  in  right  relation  to  the  Divine  will,  his 
spiritual  soul  being  so  far  a  reflection  of  the  Father  of 
spirits,  he  may  be  regarded  as  holy  at  the  start ;  and 
thus  the  Christian  believer  is  spoken  of  in  the  New 
Testament.  However  various  the  careers  before  him, 
however  easy  or  difficult,  faulty,  or  seemingly  fault- 
less his  obedience,  the  end  or  purpose  of  the  pure 
spiritual  will  remains  the  same.  However  wrenched 
away  betimes  from  the  Divine  attraction,  he  is  not 
withdrawn    from    it   utterly.     The   centripetal    force 


SANCTIFICA  TION.  65 

asserts  itself,  and  conquers  sooner  or  later  all  that  are 
centrifugal  (although,  indeed,  the  possibility  of  an  utter 
severance  is  asserted  by  the  author  of  the  Epistle  to 
the  Hebrews,  and  indicated  by  the  words  of  Jesus 
himself.  Whether  this  is  only  a  possibility  for  thought, 
or  one  that  has  been,  as  well  as  can  be,  made  actual, 
is  a  question  we  shall  discuss  in  the  proper  place).  It 
is  beyond  the  power  and  scope  of  the  human  mind  to 
know  how  far  one  having  the  holy  will,  i.  e.,  the  holy 
motive-spring  and  the  holy  end,  has  progressed  in  the 
conquest  of  his  nature,  for  this  is  the  function  of 
Judgment,  and  errors  are  so  probable  here,  that  men 
are  warned  against  judging  "before  the  time."  This 
progressive  harmonization  of  the  nature,  or  congeries 
of  involuntary  tendencies,  to  the  spiritual  will,  this 
symmetrization  of  the  same  as  relative  to  each  other, 
and  hence  the  strengthening  by  such  adaptation  the 
whole  structure,  is  Sanctification,  and  is  the  positive 
side  of  the  process,  running  pari  passu  with  the  neg- 
ative side,  the  progressive  Remission  of  sin,  in  which 
double  process  is  made  concrete  the  abstract  relation 
of  Justification. 

We  have  spoken  of  the  spiritual  will,  only  here  to 
part  with  the  expression  as  possibly  misleading.  The 
will,  as  said  long  before,  is  not  something  superadded 
to  the  human  nature,  nor  the  man  himself  in  his 
purely  spiritual  relations.  He  is  not,  never  was,  and 
never  will  be  or  can  be  a  pure  spirit ;  but  is  a  spiritual 
soul,  having  relations,  and  those  essential,  as  well  to 
the  physical  universe  which  has  entered  into  his  devel- 
opment and  made  him  what  he  is.  His  will  therefore 
respects  his  entire  being.  It  is  focussed,  indeed,  in 
his  consciousness,  but  that  consciousness  is  but  the 

Vol.  II. 


66  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

present  aspect  of  his  character,  and  is  the  result  of 
all  these  combining-  elements.  His  will  is  his  whole 
soul  with  the  relations  spiritward  and  bodyward, 
quoad  any  possible  activity  or  change,  within  itself  or 
beyond  itself.  Therefore  the  will  is  the  entire  being, 
as  having  determined,  and  having  been  determined  in 
its  character,  and  shows  itself  in  the  fluctuating  con- 
sciousness now  and  then  concentrated  for  deliberate 
action  ;  and  it,  notwithstanding  any  internal  strife  or 
fluctuation,  has  its  own  tendency  more  or  less  fixed, 
and  which,  in  the  last  resort,  notwithstanding  any 
previous  slip  or  vacillation,  decides  the  habitual 
activity.  If  this  seem  like  yielding  too  much  to 
Determinism,  we  can  only  say  :  Better  so,  than  to  fall 
back  upon  a  Psychology  which  cannot  maintain  itself, 
or  into  mere  Indifferentism.  For  indeed  we  only 
know  freedom  as  moral  choice  under  conditions  not 
of  our  own  making,  and  beyond  our  control.  The 
difficulty  for  thought  is  not  that  evil  is  possible,  but 
that  it  is  actual ;  and  the  form  which  the  conscious- 
ness of  it  takes  as  involving  guilt  and  hence  responsi- 
bility proves  the  existence  of  moral  freedom,  beyond 
and  beneath  which  our  thoughts  cannot  go.  There 
is  neither  guilt  nor  sin  unless  man  be  morally  free  ; 
and  yet  we  see  that  the  perfection  of  freedom  admits 
of  no  alternatives,  of  no  choice,  and  so  takes  the  form 
of  Determination,  but  is  Self-determination.  There 
is  no  human  being  but  knows  that  it  is  his  preroga- 
tive (sublime  and  terrible  indeed,  yet  which  gives 
the  highest  notion  of  the  elevation  of  his  idea),  if  he 
will,  to  isolate  himself,  to  be  a  law  to  himself,  to  with- 
draw from  the  universal  harmony.  Whether,  indeed, 
he  can  isolate  himself  from  all  environment,  and  con- 


SANCTIFICA  TION.  67 

stitute  a  world  within  himself ;  or  whether,  if  he  can- 
not, such  relation  to  the  environment  can  be  thought 
as  still  supplying  the  conditions  for  his  recovery,  is 
again  a  problem  of  Eschatology,  which  will  be  con- 
sidered hereafter. 

The  Sanctification  of  the  will  is  not  thought  rightly, 
then,  as  respecting  a  part  of  our  being,  but  the  whole 
of  it.  We  may  call  it  holy,  as  having  the  holy  end, 
and  having  the  only  true,  sufficient,  and  permanent 
motive-spring,  but  it  is  still  in  the  midst  of  influences 
which  solicit  it  astray  ;  to  quell  these  and  to  harmonize 
all  solicitations,  so  that  the  will  shall  represent  the 
rectified  and  symmetrized  nature,  is  the  work  of  our 
Sanctification.  These  tendencies  of  our  being  which 
constitute  character,  and  determine  the  grades  of 
actual  holiness,  spring  from  all  its  relations,  mental, 
emotional,  physical,  and  from  all  these  in  subtle  and 
intricate  combination,  and  the  sanctifying  recupera- 
tion must  reach  each  of  these  elements.  The  provi- 
dential arrangement  and  the  mystical  influence  must 
act  upon  mind  or  thought,  upon  heart  or  feeling,  and 
upon  body  likewise,  since  it  supplies  determinations 
to  thought  and  feeling.  We  know  that  to  resist 
fleshly  temptation  weakens  the  solicitation  of  the  flesh. 
They  must  also  be  such  as  we  can  understand,  and 
such  as  we  cannot  understand  or  trace.  But  so  far  as 
they  come  within  the  sphere  of  knowledge,  the  men- 
tal influences  are  chief,  and  primary  in  our  thought. 
Thought  furnishes  the  motive-spring  for  action  and 
the  object  of  emotion,  and  the  Divine  remedy  reaches 
the  subject  first  through  mental  apprehension  of  the 
same,  and  the  process  of  Sanctification  begins  with 
the  recognition  of  the  central  truth.     "  Sanctify  them 


68  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

through  thy  truth."  God's  truth  alone,  the  revelation 
of  the  innermost  secret  of  his  being,  can  arouse  the 
pure,  strong,  and  permanent  motive-spring,  and  initi- 
ate all  the  process  which  is  to  result  in  the  liberation 
and  perfection  of  the  creature.  Hence  the  conditions 
must  be  providentially  supplied  for  the  preservation, 
statement,  and  apprehension  of  that  truth,  and  hence 
the  Christian  endeavor  to  respond  to  and  make  use  of 
these, — to  do  what  can  be  done  to  correct  and  improve 
all  tentatives.  Thus  is  exhibited  a  valid  founda- 
tion for  Christian  dogma,  and  the  need  and  vindica- 
tion of  the  Christian  creeds.  A  dogma  is  but  an 
attempt  to  fix  in  intelligible  words  the  object-matter 
of  faith,  and  is  as  much  needed  as  laws  and  prescrip- 
tions are  for  objective  morality  ;  and  that  the  Chris- 
tian consciousness  is  for  the  most  part  agreed  as  to 
the  chief  dogmas  is  indubitable,  even  though  to  weave 
the  whole  into  a  coherent  and  self-consistent  scheme 
be  still  an  object  of  theologic  endeavor.  This  is  a 
process  which,  though  it  moves  slowly,  still  moves, 
and  thus  Theology  is  a  progressive  science,  adding 
new  truth  only,  however,  by  making  explicit  what  is 
already  implicit.  The  result  of  Christian  endeavor  to 
keep  the  truth  pure  and  unimpaired  and  to  make  its 
statement  satisfying  is  productive,  indeed,  often  of 
very  poor  results  in  Christian  conduct,  and  this  is  the 
Christian's  weakness  and  shame.  The  strengthening 
of  the  loving  and  sacrificial  spirit  beyond  a  few  seems 
as  slow  as  the  clarification  of  the  truth,  but  it  is  none 
the  less  real,  and  we  can  trace  the  steps  of  the  prog- 
ress, and  never  more  clearly  and  hopefully  than  in 
our  own  time.  The  rectification  of  Christian  feeling, 
the  purification  and  strengthening  of  brotherly  love, 


SANCTIFICATION.  69 

while  still  pre-supposing  the  secret  guidance  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  is  seen  to  have  been  aided  and  hastened 
by  the  progressive  clarification  of  Christian  truth  ; 
and  thus  Theology,  in  its  advance,  can  react  upon 
Christian  conduct,  and  have  practical  worth.  It  may 
make  the  object-matter  of  faith  more  attractive,  and 
thus  strengthen  the  emotions,  which  become  powerful 
sustentations  in  the  religious  life.  Since  the  truth 
thus  influences  feeling  as  well  as  thought,  and  gene- 
rates habits,  or  confirms  them,  the  impulses  astray  are 
in  this  way  weakened  or  annulled,  and  those  in  har- 
mony with  the  providential  end  are  strengthened, 
the  very  solicitations  of  the  carnal  mind  are  quieted, 
and  thus  the  body  itself  becomes  more  and  more  an 
organ  through  which  mystical  influences  may  work. 
The  vital  processes  assume  more  and  more  their  right 
relation  to  the  voluntary  or  conscious  ones,  and  noth- 
ing is  left  behind,  unthought  of,  or  uncared  for  in  the 
work  of  Sanctification.  The  body  is  the  "  temple  of 
the  Holy  Spirit."  The  untraceable  channels  and 
bonds  between  our  complex  humanity  and  its  source 
are  purified  and  strengthened,  and  processes  go  on 
within  us  of  which  we  are  unaware,  or  of  which  we 
only  have  occasional  and  vanishing  glimpses,  all  to 
issue  in  a  result  to  which  we  shall  wake  up  with  sur- 
prise and  wonder.  We  shall  know  ourselves.  We 
shall  see  ourselves  as  God  sees  us.  Our  judgment 
will  coalesce  with  his.  We  shall  see  God  in  Christ 
as  an  object  of  knowledge  rather  than  of  faith.  We 
shall  share  the  Divine  Glory.  I  need  hardly  say  that 
in  the  mind  of  the  Apostle  Paul  Sanctification  is  thus 
thought  to  be  complete,  and  of  body,  soul,  and  spirit. 
It  is  easy  to  see  that  any  consequences  of  sins  of 


70  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

infirmity  or  ignorance  (the  latter  subjectively  right 
though  objectively  wrong  ;  the  former  still  subjec- 
tively as  well  as  objectively  wrong  and  coming  from 
dizziness,  and  weakness  remaining  still,  but  followed 
at  once  by  repentance,  which  thus  shows  that  such 
sins  have  not  sprung  from  the  inmost  heart  or  ar- 
rested the  predominant  upward  tendency)  must  be 
consumed  and  disappear  in  the  blaze  of  this  sanctify- 
ing process.  While  they  continue  they  react  upon 
Christian  motives  and  become  purifying,  but  they  go 
on  to  their  extinction,  and  thus  the  Divine  pardon  is 
made  real.  The  Christian  is  still  held  and  treated  as 
the  just  one,  having  alien  elements  to  be  eliminated. 
All  Christians  know  that  their  tribulation  work- 
eth  patience,  and  that  this  contentedness  to  suffer 
and  contentedness  to  wait  is  an  exercise  of  faith 
which  is  strengthening  and  sanctifying,  and  accom- 
plishes at  length  experience,  or  insight  into  the  Di- 
vine meaning  and  immediate  purpose,  which  is  a  boon 
to  faith  and  confirms  it  not  by  trial,  but  by  the  reward 
of  success  under  trial,  by  blessing  rather  than  by 
chastening,  and  that  as  the  result  of  this  harmony  of 
thought  with  feeling,  hope  takes  wing  and  soars  in  the 
upper  air. 

To  sum  up  then  :  Justification  is  the  name  of  the 
timeless  or  ideal  relation  between  God  and  the  Chris- 
tian believer.  It  becomes  real  and  knowablc  in  the 
time-processes  of  the  Remission  of  sin,  or  the  vanish- 
ing of  the  consequences  of  the  same,  and  of  Sanctifi- 
cation,  or  progressive  holiness, — which,  too,  condition 
and  imply  each  other,  and,  so  far  as  the  Divine  activi- 
ty is  concerned,  may  be  regarded  as  one  process. 
And  all  is  due  to  the  work  of  Christ,  reaching  on  the 


SANCTIFICA  TION.  yi 

Cross  its  perfect  liberating  and  exalting  efficacy  ;  and 
Faith,  as  the  joint  act  of  God  and  man  is  the  media- 
ting principle  between  the  Atoning  sacrifice  and  these 
results. 

There  is  a  secondary  or  relative  sanctification  which 
it  may  be  well  to  consider.  Nothing  but  a  spiritual 
being  can  be  holy  in  the  strict  sense,  but  whatever  is 
prescribed  or  set  apart  as  means  to  the  grand  provi- 
dential end,  the  commonwealth  of  holy  souls,  may  be 
said  to  be  consecrated,  and  thus  relatively  holy.  We 
thus  speak  of  the  Holy  Church,  regarding  it  as  a 
visible  organization  rather  than  as  an  organism  truly 
living,  united  and  animated  through  the  mystical  bond 
of  union  with  Christ,  even  though  this  visible  organi- 
zation may  be  full  of  imperfection,  and  but  partially 
represent  the  requirements  of  the  organism.  We 
speak  of  the  Holy  Sacraments  as  rites  thus  prescribed 
to  be  means  and  media,  and  one  of  them  a  mode  of 
worship.  And  so  inanimate  things,  thus  consecrated, 
may  be  called  holy.  No  mistake  as  to  the  meaning 
of  the  term  in  such  connection  is  likely,  as  long  as 
the  primary  signification  of  the  word  is  understood. 
It  even  comes  to  pass  that  the  whole  body  of  the 
selected  ones  is  called  holy  simply  from  their  provi- 
dential selection,  and  even  the  unworthy  individual, 
as  included  in  it,  may  receive  the  epithet.  The  Apos- 
tles evidently  did  not  undertake  to  discriminate,  ex- 
cept in  instances  of  manifest  apostacy,  and  called  all 
believers  holy.  For,  as  I  have  said,  it  is  out  of  the 
scope  of  human  knowledge  to  judge  of  the  degrees  of 
progress  of  the  Christian  believers  with  trustworthy 
accuracy.  The  Divine  judgment  would  probably  re- 
verse or  modify  half  the  human  judgments  in  this 


72  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

particular.  Even  in  our  common  experience  great 
emergencies  bring  us  great  surprises,  and  the  man  of 
seeming  integrity  shows  himself  a  failure,  and  the 
unsuspected  one  often  a  hero.  To  pronounce,  then, 
that  any  Christian  has  progressed  so  far  in  the  Divine 
life  as  to  be  absolutely  indefectible,  or  that  any  one  is 
beyond  all  hope  of  recovery,  is  to  usurp  the  Divine 
judgment.  The  Roman  Church  is  logical  in  claiming 
that  the  evidence  of  such  indefectibility  is  power  over 
nature,  and  to  work  miracles  ;  and  so  she  asks  for 
evidence,  and  does  not  claim  intuitive  insight.  How 
cautious  she  has  been  in  this  respect  we  know  not. 
But  only  by  admitting  the  claim  thus  rightly  to  decide, 
can  we  think  that  this  separation  of  Christian  believ- 
ers into  two  classes,  of  saints  par  eminence,  and  saints 
by  courtesy,  or  saints  in  embryo,  has  any  validity. 
The  New-Testament  writers  do  not  use  the  word  in 
these  differing  senses.  With  them  all  believers  and 
professors  of  Christ  are  holy,  with  no  exception  made 
except  an  abstract  one.  No  individual  receives  from 
them  absolute  condemnation  and  rejection.  Even 
Simon  Magus  has  held  before  him  the  possibility  of 
repentance  and  forgiveness.  They,  like  their  Lord, 
ever  prefer  to  contemplate  Christian  believers  as  one 
body,  as  members  of  the  same  ministering  each  to 
the  health  of  each  other  and  the  perfection  of  the 
whole.  Any  thing  like  individual  salvation  even  does 
not  enter  into  their  thought,  and  the  ultimate  perfec- 
tion waits  to  be  bestowed  till  the  whole  number  of  the 
elect  is  made  up. 

And  thus  is  suggested  the  topic  of  such  a  selected 
body, — of  individuals  chosen  out  of  the  mass  of  man- 
kind to  receive  here  on  earth  the  gospel,  and  to  con- 


SANCTIFICA  TION.  73 

stltute  the  Christian  Church.  This  providential  selec- 
tion, however,  can  only  be  thought  rightly  as  part  of 
a  larger  question,  viz.,  that  of  the  whole  providential 
scheme  for  mankind  as  such.  This  is  a  problem  quite 
distinct  from  that  of  the  "  eternal  election "  (so  to 
phrase  it),  or  the  last  ground  of  differing  moral  choice. 
The  two  must  be  considered,  first,  separately,  and 
then  be  shown  the  relation,  if  any,  between  them. 
This  then  will  be  the  order  of  the  topics  yet  to  be 
treated  of,  viz.: 

(1)  The  general  doctrine  of  the  Divine  Providence, 
and  the  particular  branch  of  it,  the  Providential  selec- 
tion of  those  who  are  to  constitute  the  Christian 
Church. 

(2)  The  relation  of  the  same  to  the  eternal  election, 
or  Predestination. 

(3)  The  Church,  the  body  thus  selected  and  organ- 
ized, and  its  essential  marks. 

(4)  How  far  the  visible  connection  with  the  same 
accomplishes  a  true  objective  union  with  Christ, — or 
the  Christian  Sacraments. 

(5)  The  positive  meaning,  use,  and  obligation  of 
other  rites  of  worship,  sacramental  in  a  lower  or  larger 
sense. 

(6)  An  inquiry  into  the  question  of  the  need  of  a 
Ministry,  and  the  further  one  of  its  constitution  and 
mode  of  perpetuation. 

(7)  The  function  of  such  ministry  as  administering 
the  objective  rites  of  the  Church,  and  as  having  the 
cure  of  souls. 

(8)  The  function  of  the  whole  Church  in  preserving 
or  clarifying  the  truth  ;   or,  The  Rule  of  Faith. 

(9)  The  design  and  issue  of  all  this  scheme,  how 


74  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

far  to  progress  visibly  and  here  on  earth, — one  problem 
of  Eschatology. 

(10)  Other  questions  of  Eschatology  proper,  the 
doctrines  of  Hades,  of  the  Judgment,  of  Hell,  and  of 
Heaven. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE    DOCTRINE    OF    PROVIDENCE. 

It  has  always  been  a  difficulty  for  the  mind,  having 
reached  a  certain  depth  of  reflection,  that  the  alleged 
remedy  for  man's  disorder  was  not  extended  nor  uni- 
versal, was  limited  to  a  small  number,  and  has  even 
yet  reached  but  a  portion  of  humankind.  If  of  Divine 
origin  and  springing  from  the  Divine  benevolence, 
why  not  have  made  it  known  to  mankind  in  some  un- 
mistakable way,  or  at  least  have  provided  the  condi- 
tions for  its  rapid  spread.  But  since  all  duration  is 
relative,  if  any  thing  short  of  immediate  intuition  were 
the  method,  there  would  the  same  objection  lie  to  any 
period  whatever,  relatively  brief  or  long.  But  again 
it  may  be  thought  that  the  gospel  offer  might  have 
come  within  the  compass  of  every  human  life  at  such 
time  as  was  best  adapted  to  its  moral  recovery.  Some 
have  thought  to  annul  this  objection  by  reflecting  that 
earthly  life  does  not  comprise  the  sum  of  human  ex- 
istence, and  that  the  gospel  offer  may  indeed  be  made 
at  the  best  point  of  every  human  career,  either  before 
or  after  death.  This  scheme  will  presently  be  care- 
fully examined.  But  indeed  the  question,  being  what 
it  is,  has  given  rise  to  many  opinions,  hastily  formed, 
as  affording  an  immediate  solution.  Thus  some  have 
identified  the  providential  selection  with  the  absolute 
or  eternal   election,  as   God's  work  bound  to  issue 

75 


76  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

successfully,  and  we  have  a  doctrine  of  absolute, 
arbitrary,  and  unconditioned  Predestination  ;  as  the 
result  of  which  the  rest  of  the  human  race  have  been 
swept  into  an  indiscriminate  category  of  condemnation 
and  reprobation.  But  since  this  can  only  be  held  as 
a  logical  deduction  a  priori,  from  premises  isolated 
from  all  relation,  and  themselves  conclusions  from  im- 
perfect a  posteriori  induction,  others  have  sought  to 
make  a  distinction  between  those  seemingly  neglected, 
exempting  from  this  condemnation  all  such  as  God's 
interference  had  reached  in  anticipatory  and  imperfect 
form,  and  besides  these,  all  such  as,  under  purely 
natural  conditions,  have  attained  moral  rectitude  ;  but 
still,  in  either  case,  leaving  a  residuum,  who  seem  to 
have  been  uncared  for,  and  who  therefore  have  no 
opportunity  of  escaping  from  the  condemnation  which 
exists  already.  Thus  the  universality  of  the  atoning 
work  of  Christ  has  been  made  to  consist  in  a  mere 
abstract  relation,  a  possibility  for  thought  merely,  but 
having  no  concrete  reality.  Others  again,  shocked 
by  the  assertion  that  those  who  have  made,  under 
limited  knowledge  indeed,  but  still  a  right  moral 
choice,  should  still  through  ignorance  of  Christ  have 
missed  their  salvation,  have  avowed  such  salvation 
possible  for  them,  but  have  severed  it  from  any 
knowledge  of  him  or  connection  with  him  ;  thus 
leaving  for  thought  two  modes  of  human  recovery, 
and  two  or  more  species  of  emancipated  souls. 

It  seems  to  the  present  author  that  it  is  not  difficult 
to  unify  these  differing  schemes,  by  discovering  the 
truth  in  each,  and  setting  them  in  right  relation, — to 
find  secure  ground  on  which  to  tread,  or  if  there  be 
an  hiatus  for  thought  insoluble,  manifestly  and  clearly 
to  bound  it. 


THE  DOCTRINE  OE  PROVIDENCE.  77 

Indeed,  the  whole  question  of  the  limitation  of  the 
gospel  offer  is  merged  in  the  larger  one  of  the  Divine 
Providence.  Besides  this  particular  limitation,  it  is 
unquestioned  that  there  are  other  inequalities  of 
human  conditions  quite  as  difficult  of  explanation, 
other  modes,  hence,  of  Divine  treatment  which  are 
seemingly  arbitrary  and  without  meaning,  and  that 
the  minute  adaptation  of  this  treatment  to  the  moral 
needs  of  the  individuals  concerned  is  undetectable, 
except  by  such  occasional  and  transitory  glimpses  as 
still  keep  faith  in  it  alive.  Some,  indeed,  profess  that 
they  can  find  no  such  adaptation,  no  moral  meaning 
to  human  life,  and  regard  men,  as  they  regard  the 
stocks  and  stones,  as  under  the  sway  of  physical  forces 
only.  They  think  that  nature  is  a  Juggernaut,  crush- 
ing or  sparing  her  victims  only  as  they  have  not  or 
have  wit  enough  to  elude  her,  or*  by  some  diversion 
of  force  entirely  accidental  escape  her  infliction.  Such 
a  philosophy  issues  necessarily  in  a  Pessimism,  and 
man  is  of  all  creatures  most  to  be  pitied,  since  he 
knows  his  mournful  lot,  as  other  creatures  do  not,  and 
all  his  struggles  to  escape  it  are  necessarily  vain. 

And  others  again,  noticing  that  moral  ends  furnish 
the  motives  from  which  man  endeavors  after  and  ob- 
tains his  imperfect  and  transitory  domination  over 
nature,  hold  to  some  dimly  seen  result  to  which  the 
stream  of  tendency  runs,  and  reach  in  thought  and 
imagination  some  sort  of  a  moral  commonwealth,  the 
outcome  of  improved  inherited  instincts,  but  still 
existing  in  the  midst  of  hostile  nature,  and  still  there- 
fore requiring  sacrifice.  But  no  imagination  of  moral 
perfection  can  be  reached  by  this  scheme  of  thought 
while  nature  remains  still  not  correspondent,  since 


78  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

her  imperfection  issuing  in  disordering  and  destroying 
influences  must  act  upon  the  instincts,  and  start  again 
the  selfish  and  self-preserving  tendencies,  so  that 
moral  perfection  still  remains  far  off.  Did  this  scheme 
superadd  and  find  ground  for  the  making  of  nature 
also  changeful,  and  correspondent  to  the  moral  attain- 
ment, it  would  have  taken  a  step  towards  the  removal 
of  the  still  remaining  contradiction, — but  there  would 
still  remain  for  thought  and  imagination  the  terrible 
holocaust  of  human  victims,  by  whose  failure  and 
misery  this  ultimate  immunity  would  have  been  pur- 
chased and  reached.  These  would  still  have  been 
immolated  for  no  other  result  than  to  furnish  occasion 
for  more  undisturbed  enjoyment  for  certain  genera- 
tions of  no  more  absolute  worth  than  their  own  ; 
and  these  still  liable  to  retrogression,  and  the  rein- 
statement of  the  same  disordered  conditions, — being 
thus  but  the  smoother  part  of  a  cyclical  movement. 

The  principle  that  underlies  and  binds  together  the 
moments  of  both  these  schemes  of  thinking  is  either 
logico-physical,  or  purely  physical.  If  any  thing  more 
be  admitted,  there  is  no  rest  for  the  retreating  mind 
till  it  reaches  the  conclusion  that  man  is  not  to  be  ex- 
plained and  his  destiny  forecasted  by  studying  nature 
and  her  forces,  and  himself  as  a  part  of  nature,  but  by 
studying  him  in  his  higher  aspect,  as  a  spiritual  soul 
with  aspirations  boundless,  thus  with  spiritual  in- 
stincts, so  to  speak,  as  real  as  the  instinct  of  hunger. 

This  hesitancy  to  hold  a  moral  meaning  to  human 
life,  and  a  moral  intent  in  the  movements  of  nature, 
thus  a  providential  scheme,  is  the  result  of  a  phi- 
losophy founded  on  a  partial  induction,  and  confining 
itself  to  the  a  posteriori  processes.     But  if  there  are 


THE  DOCTRINE  OF  PROVIDENCE.  79 

synthetic  judgments  a  priori  (as  Kant  contends), 
then  a  posteriori  processes  cannot  be  thus  abstracted, 
indeed  as  purely  such  do  not  exist.  If  all  experience 
contains  an  a  priori  element,  this  too  might  be  ab- 
stracted as  a  starting-point,  and  on  it  founded  a 
philosophy.  But  this  too  concretely  is  never  purely 
such,  as  we  have  shown,  and  experience  as  a  synthesis 
of  both  determinations  is  alone  a  valid  starting-point 
for  deduction  and  further  knowledge.  It  has  been  in 
this  work  claimed,  and  endeavored  to  be  shown,  that 
in  human  consciousness,  thus  and  always  a  complex 
synthesis,  there  is  implicit  in  pure  form  the  principle 
of  causality,  and  that  too  accompanied  by,  or  rather 
enveloped  in,  the  feeling  of  complacency  ;  thus  that 
the  idea  of  origin,  of  thought,  and  of  love,  is  one  idea, 
incapable  of  separation — or  the  idea  of  God, — and  is 
implicit  in  the  essential  structure  of  the  human  mind, 
needs  only  to  be  disentangled  by  analysis,  and  ever 
persists,  though  multifariously  disguised.  It  belongs 
to  this  idea  from  its  very  definition  and  constitution 
to  show  in  itself  the  possibility,  and  to  contain  the 
explanation  of  all  existence.  In  no  human  con- 
sciousness is  this  Principle  non-existent.  The  ma- 
terialist seizes  some  elements  of  it,  and  thus  acknowl- 
edges these  as  valid,  while  conveniently  neglecting 
the  others,  and  so  fails  therefrom  to  account  for 
that  which  is  highest  and  best  in  himself.  The  pure 
idealist  seizes  other  elements  of  it,  and  fails  there- 
from to  account  for,  or  fritters  into  nonentity,  the 
visible,  tangible  universe.  When  man  begins  to  think 
logically,  of  necessity  he  posits  his  First  Principle,  and 
the  validity  of  this  must  be  tested  by  the  results,  the 
truth  of  it  by  the  coherence  and  self-consistency  of 


80  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

the  entire  round  of  alleged  knowledge.  There  is  no 
other  proof  than  this  possible, — that  all  knowledge, 
nothing  omitted,  can  be  woven  into  a  self-coherent 
whole,  and  so  long  as  any  loose  connection  inheres, 
or  there  is  any  hiatus,  proof  is  imperfect.  Logic,  in 
the  common  meaning  of  the  word,  is  untrustworthy. 
It  deals  with  propositions  only.  An  antecedent  dia- 
lectic is  the  summit  of  human  attainment,  that  which 
deals  with  concrete  existence,  and  aims  to  discover  its 
essence.  As  long,  therefore,  as  there  is  any  unsolved 
residuum,  the  proof,  and  all  proof  is  imperfect.  If 
the  mystery  of  moral  evil  be  in  itself  insoluble  for 
human  intellect  at  the  present  stage  of  its  progress,  it 
is  such  a  residuum,  and  in  consequence  all  proof  what- 
ever is  imperfect,  and  not  secure  from  assault,  which 
all  man's  mental  history  shows.  Therefore  faith  is 
still  the  indispensable  thing,  upon  which  every  mind  is 
forced  to  fall  back  ;  and  man  adopts  his  First  Princi- 
ple, not  as  the  result  of  any  demonstration,  but 
according  to  processes  not  fully  discoverable  yet 
grounded  upon  subtle  moral  conditions.  As  long  as 
the  differing  moral  choice  exists  on  the  earth,  deter- 
mining the  mental  trend,  there  will  be  mental  differ- 
ences and  disputes  among  mankind.  "  An  evil  heart 
of  unbelief  "  does  not  consist  simply  in  denying  the 
Christian  revelation  as  such  (that  may  be  done  by  a 
heart  not  evil,  and  having  the  essential  elements  of 
faith,  yet  recoiling  from  a  faultily  presented  Christian- 
ity), but  in  denying  the  validity  of  moral  distinctions, 
and  that  not  by  mental  avowal  merely,  but  in  conduct. 
Having  thus  posited  our  First  Principle,  and  lodged 
in  it  for  our  thought  the  possibility  of  and  the  condi- 
tions for  all  existence, — for  nature,  or  the  physical 


THE  DOCTRINE  OF  PROVIDENCE.  81 

process  ;  for  thought,  or  the  spiritual  one  ;  for  love  as 
the  mediation  of  the  two, — then  in  following  out  de- 
duction from  the  same  a  priori,  we  reach  a  doctrine  of 
Providence,  with  which  a  posteriori  indications  may 
not  for  our  present  understanding  accurately  coalesce, 
but  which  they  cannot  controvert.  It  must  follow 
that  one  purpose  runs  through  all  created  existence. 
There  is  nothing  arbitrary  or  groundless,  and  such  a 
word  as  chance  is  meaningless  and  unthinkable.  Of 
all  which  science  is  confirmative,  in  its  conclusion  of 
the  unity  of  all  force,  and  correlation  of  its  forms.  To 
a  certain  extent  we  can  follow  the  manifestation  of 
the  hierarchy  of  ideas,  or  succession  of  mechanical, 
chemical,  and  vital  forces.  We  see  that  there  has 
been  no  waste  in  the  physical  realm,  but  that  all  is 
orderly  and  connected.  At  a  certain  stage  of  the 
evolution  we  find  the  moral  element  which  has  to  be 
unified  with  what  went  before.  It  is  made  possible 
by  spiritual  relations,  of  all  creatures  man's  sole  pos- 
session and  prerogative,  and  through  which  we  dis- 
cover a  new  relation  to  the  physical,  which  thus  is 
found  to  have  spiritual  adaptation.  It  is  adapted  to 
his  thinking  power,  and  his  thought  to  it,  and  thus 
acquires  a  new  meaning.  Regarded  as  physical 
merely  the  universe  cannot  explain  him,  but  he  must 
explain  it.  He  is  a  complex  and  wonderful  creature, 
full  of  aspirations  and  hopes.  It  belongs  to  a  rational 
doctrine  of  evolution  that  it  can  only  be  understood  in 
its  ultimate  stage,  in  its  highest  outcome,  and  man, 
with  all  his  imperfection,  is  the  ultimate  yet  reached, 
and  has  in  himself  indications  and  possibilities  of  still 
higher  modes  of  existence.  Whatever  other  ends  the 
universe  may  have,  possibly  to  be  discovered,  it  now 

Vol.  II. 


82  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

serves  humanity,  conditions  his  development,  fur- 
nishes his  enjoyment,  and,  since  it  is  thus  adapted  to 
the  lowers  wants  of  his  being,  we  may  rightly  infer 
that  it  is  adapted  to  the  higher  ones  as  well,  and  that 
his  environment  is  correspondent  to  the  degree  of  his 
spiritual  elevation,  and  may  or  must  change  with  any 
change  in  the  kind  of  the  same. 

But  as  men  are  not  like  minted  coins,  monotonously 
alike,  but  each  one  is  a  distinct  and  unique  combina- 
tion of  powers,  impulses,  and  proclivities,  in  every  par- 
ticular case  so  complex  as  to  escape  accurate  knowl- 
edge, and  even  self-knowledge  ;  since  the  more  the  in- 
dividual soul  is  searched  into  by  thought,  unsuspected 
traits  and  possibilities  are  discovered,  unknown  depths 
past  all  sounding ;  as  thus  human  conduct  eludes 
human  prediction,  and  human  character  often  disap- 
points,— therefore  it  must  follow  that  the  adaptation 
of  the  environment  to  the  needs  of  the  subject  must 
make  it  different  in  each  particular  case.  So  intricate 
a  creature  is  man,  that  if  indeed  the  environment  were 
accurately  adapted  to  the  spiritual  needs  of  each  indi- 
vidual subject,  to  accomplish  his  elevation,  it  could  not 
be  seen  and  displayed  to  the  human  mind,  except  in 
such  occasional  glimpses  as  sufficed  to  save  the  belief 
in  it  from  extinction.  But  that  the  total  environment 
is  perfectly  and  exquisitely  adapted  to  the  needs 
and  progressive  elevation  of  every  human  being,  and 
that  all  human  interference  with  the  same  amounts  to 
naught,  but  is  overruled,  and  its  consequences  caught 
up  into  the  stream  of  Providence,  and  therein  har- 
monized, is  a  valid  deduction  from  the  idea  of  the 
First  Principle  which  has  been  posited.  This  is  cer- 
tainly the  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  of  the  New- 


THE  DOCTRINE  OF  PROVIDENCE.  83 

Testament  writers ;  than  which  philosophy  nowhere 
shows  any  thing  more  logical,  profound,  and  trust- 
worthy. "  The  very  hairs  of  your  head  are  num- 
bered." "  Not  a  sparrow  falleth  to  the  ground  with- 
out your  Father."  "  All  things  work  together  for  good 
to  them  that  love  him."  It  will  follow  strictly  from 
these  premises,  then,  that  in  spite  of  all  appearances 
the  treatment  which  every  human  soul  receives  at  the 
Divine  hands  is  precisely  and  accurately  suited  to  his 
particular  needs,  and  to  the  Divine  universal  purpose. 
God  has  indeed  loosened  from  himself  the  spiritual 
soul,  and  committed  to  him  the  task  of  his  determina- 
tion, and  does  not  control  his  moral  choice,  but  fur- 
nishes every  condition  that  it  maybe  the  right  one,  and 
made  at  the  right  time.  But  He  has  not  loosened  from 
himself  any  thing  else,  or  man  in  any  other  element  or 
relation  of  his  being ;  and  whatever  man  does,  be  it 
morally  good  or  evil,  He  makes  to  blend  into  and  ac- 
complish his  designs,  as  truly  as  He  controls  the  out- 
bursts of  the  great  physical  convulsions. 

There  is  no  difficulty  for  thought  in  all  this,  and 
even  experience  furnishes  confirmation,  and  evidence 
for  the  conclusion  that  the  recuperative  powers  of  the 
universe  were  primal,  are,  as  a  rule,  paramount,  and 
that  in  these  rather  than  in  the  retrograding  and 
destructive  ones  is  its  explanation.  Any  difficulty  for 
thought  arises  only  when  we  attempt  empirically 
to  vindicate  the  thesis  and  square  the  treatment  of 
Providence  to  human  needs.  Here  inequality  and 
injustice  seem  to  prevail.  Irrespective  of  moral  char- 
acter, some  are  so  favored  with  conditions  for  enjoy- 
ment, for  culture  and  growth,  for  the  starting  and 
progress  of  religious  and  moral  influences, — and  others 


84  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

seem  so  neglected,  degraded,  and  wretched,  that  if 
there  is  any  discrimination,  any  meaning  or  fitness  in 
all  this,  the  understanding  and  imagination  fail  to 
discover  and  behold  it,  and  one  is  tempted  to  think 
that  after  all  physical  and  blind  forces  are  paramount, 
that  all  is  an  accident,  and  that  there  is  no  connection 
between  them  and  man's  moral  life.  Here  arises  the 
conflict  of  faith  ;  here  is  most  frequently  assaulted  the 
steadfastness  of  Christian  belief.  It  seems  that  indeed 
"  His  ways  are  past  finding  out,"  or  else  that  there  are 
no  ways,  and  that  man  is  simply  a  cowering  creature 
in  the  midst  of  physical  tempests,  from  which  some 
few  only  have  escaped,  and  secured  a  temporary  im- 
munity ;  and  so  an  ethic  of  expediency  becomes  the 
rule  of  life. 

But  we  have  seen  that  trustworthy  knowledge  of 
human  character  is  unattainable,  that  facts  often 
scatter  our  theories  and  our  judgments,  that  man 
proves  to  be  a  creature  with  undiscoverable  relations  ; 
and  if  so,  how  can  we  confidently  and  safely  judge  of 
the  suitableness  for  him  of  his  environment  ?  Surely 
if  each  human  one  is  a  unique  combination  of  traits, 
impulses,  tendencies,  and  possible  deliberate  resolves, 
and  these  too  in  contest  with  each  other,  with  fluc- 
tuating victories, — if  the  contradiction  of  moral  evil 
has  variously  strengthened  the  selfish  and  carnal  im- 
pulses, and  suggested  remote  purposes, — if  thus,  when 
we  strive  to  understand  this  arena  of  conflict,  all  runs 
into  confusion  and  dimness,  like  the  view  of  a  battle 
beneath  the  smoke, — if  thus  we  despair  of  understand- 
ing the  outbreaks  of  the  disease,  though  we  know 
what  that  disease  is,  how  can  we  expect  to  under- 
stand the  apportionment  of  the  treatment,  the  mode 


THE  DOCTRINE  OF  PROVIDENCE.  85 

of  application  of  the  remedy,  though  we  know 
what  that  remedy  is  and  must  be  ?  If  our  idea  of 
the  First  Principle  be  true  and  validly  held,  there  can 
be  no  valueless  human  soul,  no  meaningless  human 
life.  The  possibilities  of  growth  and  elevation  of  the 
Australian  savage  make  him  of  greater  worth  in  our 
regard  than  any  burnt  out  orb,  or  undeveloped  planet, 
thought  of  in  itself  alone.  These  are  ineradicable 
and  profound  instincts,  beliefs,  or  conclusions  which 
man  does  not  repress  and  cannot  extirpate,  that  as  a 
thinking  and  enjoying  or  suffering  soul  he  has  value 
above  any  material  combination,  that  his  life  has 
meaning,  that  he  is  more  than  a  mote  in  the  sun- 
beam, living  its  little  moment  of  enjoyment,  that 
even  his  agony  is  not  without  meaning,  and  shows 
him  in  its  exquisiteness  to  be  intended  for  other  ends 
than  the  mote.  The  very  efforts  of  those  who  con- 
tend for  a  Godless  philosophy  imply  their  conviction 
of  their  own  higher  use  and  intent,  otherwise  their 
efforts  would  not  be  worth  their  own  regard,  would 
not  indeed  be  prompted. 

In  this  conflict  of  faith  and  unfaith,  of  a  priori  de- 
duction with  a  partial  induction,  there  is  relief  found 
for  some  by  regarding  man's  earthly  life  as  only  the 
first  stage  of  his  career,  but  with  other  conditions  of 
experience  in  prospect  ;  and  hence  that  his  meaning 
cannot  be  discovered  by  studying  only  his  earthly 
career.  This  resort,  however,  can  be  so  dealt  with  as 
to  deprive  his  earthly  career  of  meaning.  Though 
each  man  be  indeed  a  unique  synthesis  of  the  same 
elements,  all  men  are  still  essentially  alike.  The 
uniqueness  is  in  the  combination  and  the  creative 
schema,  but  the  elements  or  factors  are  alike  in  every 


86  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

case.  If  then,  life  has  meaning  for  some,  it  must 
have  it  for  all.  If  some  are  morally  responsible,  all 
are.  If  some  have  sinned,  all  have  sinned.  If  recov- 
ery be  possible  for  some,  it  must  be  possible  for  all. 
Man's  immortality  cannot  be  conditional,  or  he  could 
not  be  held  responsible,  and  could  not  be  convicted 
of  sin,  as  we  have  heretofore  shown.  Therefore  not 
only  has  his  earthly  life  intent  and  meaning,  but  this 
meaning  cannot  be  fully  discovered  and  related,  ex- 
cept by  considering  the  possible  stages  of  his  career 
after  death.  And  here  may  be  found  some  relief  for 
our  thought  from  the  painful  perplexity  we  fall  into 
when  dealing  with  the  doctrine  of  the  Divine  Provi- 
dence. But  here,  while  we  have  avoided  on  one  side 
the  Scylla  of  conditional  immortality,  we  find  yawning 
on  the  other  the  Charybdis  of  the  notion  of  probation 
after  death.  This  seems  to  resolve  the  problem,  at 
first  glance,  but  a  second  one  convinces  us  that  it  is  too 
easy  a  solution,  and  had  at  too  great  a  cost. 

If  man  be  an  immortal  being  he  must  be  capable  of 
endless  development  and  expansion.  But  this  devel- 
opment is,  for  our  thought,  necessarily  marked  into 
three  distinct  stadia.  First,  that  of  existence  on  the 
earth,  in  which,  through  connecting  media,  he  receives 
determinations  from  the  material  universe,  and  from 
the  realm  of  pure  spirit,  and  determines  himself 
through  them,  and  his  consciousness  is  ever  more 
complex,  and  his  character  progressive.  Second,  that 
of  existence  after  death,  which  implies  continued  con- 
sciousness, but  consciousness  from  another  centre,  and 
through  other  media,  in  which  is  implied  a  change  of 
relation  to  the  physical  universe,  as  well  as  to  the 
spiritual  realm,    but  not  an  abandonment  of  either. 


THE  DOCTRINE  OF  PROVIDENCE.  87 

And  third,  the  ultimate  existence,  with  its  related 
consciousness,  having  in  it  the  sum  of  essential  rela- 
tions, and  these  harmonized,  ideal  and  normal.  As 
such  it  is  still  progressive,  and  there  must  be  found 
for  it  a  sphere  of  activity,  and  the  conditions  for  end- 
less expansion.  The  essential  idea  and  meaning  of 
the  first  stadium,  if  it  be  any  thing  more  than  physical 
growth  and  decay,  any  thing  more  than  animal 
existence,  or  any  thing  more  than  mental  acquisi- 
tion which  has  only  immediate  worth  and  no  perma- 
nent use,  must  be  that  it  is  the  occasion  and  the 
sphere  of  putting  such  acquisition  to  use,  i.  e.,  relating 
it  to  an  end,  which  end  can  be  nothing  other  than  one 
or  the  other  moral  alternative,  and  thus  its  intent  is 
his  moral  probation,  otherwise  his  moral  consciousness 
exists  in  vain,  and  there  are  before  him  only  pruden- 
tial alternatives  ;  and  in  such  case  no  absolute  and 
eternal  law  is  violated  by  him,  and  he  cannot  be  con- 
victed of  sin  for  preferring  the  immediate  and  certain 
delight  to  the  remote  and  problematical  one  ; — or  else 
the  moral  consciousness  must  be  thought  as  never 
presenting  an  alternative,  as  undergoing  immediate 
or  slow  yet  inevitable  obliteration.  This  scheme 
issues  in  or  implies  the  denial  that  the  moral  con- 
sciousness is  universal,  and  introduces  a  sharp-dividing 
line  between  the  individuals  of  the  human  race,  quite 
other  than  the  Christian  and  heathen.  We  have  be- 
fore sought  to  show  that  such  moral  consciousness  is 
universal,  that  moral  alternatives  are  possible  for  all, 
that  this  is  the  meaning  of  human  life  and  environ- 
ment, moral  probation,  whatever  else  it  be.  The 
moral  decision,  consciously  or  unconsciously  made, 
marks   the  beginning    trend    of  the  creature   either 


88  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

towards  the  perfection  and  harmony  of  the  common- 
wealth, or  towards  isolation  and  independency,  thus 
towards  pure  evil.  It  is  not  satisfactory  to  think  that 
man's  life  on  the  earth  may  be  a  mere  vacillation  be- 
tween these  two  conflicting  tendencies,  never  decided 
in  favor  of  one  or  the  other,  for  this  supposes  that  the 
environment  is  not  sufficient  to  make  one  responsible 
for  the  moral  choice,  and  responsibility  disappears  as 
a  universal  predication.  We  can  in  that  case  argue 
for  a  portion  of  mankind  only  alternatives  of  expedi- 
ency. This  arbitrary  division  of  the  human  race  is  a 
superficial  expedient.  Rather,  the  conviction  is  in- 
wrought in  human  nature,  and,  however  dimly,  it  is 
still  really  felt  in  every  case  that  selfishness  and  in- 
dependency contradict  the  idea,  the  law,  and  the  in- 
tent of  the  human  life.  However  limited  in  knowl- 
edge, the  human  subject  cannot  remain  stationary,  but 
connects  himself  sooner  or  later  to  one  or  the  other 
alternative ;  the  character  forms  and  strengthens  in 
one  direction  or  the  other,  and,  in  spite  of  retrogres- 
sions moves  forward  accordingly.  This  was  indubita- 
bly the  opinion  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  who  regarded 
the  heathen  as  having  a  law  in  themselves,  and  to  be 
judged  by  a  purely  moral  standard. 

The  right  moral  choice  does  not  indeed  necessarily 
issue  in  perfection  or  salvation,  any  more  than  Chris- 
tian belief  does  in  every  case,  but  it  ensures  that  the 
conditions  of  grace  will  be  supplied  that  it  may  so 
issue.  Hence  it  will  still  remain  true  that  none  can 
be  saved  but  through  the  sacrifice  of  Christ,  through 
the  knowledge  of  Christ,  and  by  the  power  of  the 
Holy  Spirit. 

It  is  implied  in  this  thesis  that  none  pass  out  of 


THE  DOCTRINE  OF  PROVIDENCE.  89 

this  life  without  having,  however  obscurely  and  un- 
discoverably,  determined  their  relation  to  the  moral 
law,  whether  it  take  the  shape  of  moral  prescription 
or  moral  instinct.  This  is  held  on  grounds  both  a 
priori  and  a  posteriori.  It  avoids  the  dilemma  of 
thinking  human  life  to  have  no  meaning,  and  lifts  us 
beyond  an  ethic  of  expediency.  The  moral  character 
shows  itself  so  unmistakably  as  soon  as  the  soul  is 
sufficiently  developed  to  furnish  indications  of  it,  as 
to  induce  even  the  suspicion  that  it  had  been  pre- 
determined. Here  indeed  is  a  blank  wall,  a  mystery, 
to  account  for  the  wrong  and  deliberate  moral  choice, 
the  reversal  of  the  primary  and  profoundest  instincts 
of  our  being.  It  is  an  act  so  irrational,  that  to  hold 
that  it  never  takes  place  is  not  without  ground  and 
plausibility.  Yet  it  is  a  corollary  of  human  freedom, 
and  seems  to  have  sufficient  a  posteriori  evidence. 
What  further  conclusions  may  be  reached,  if  we  re- 
gard this  choice  of  evil  as  not  only  possible  but  actual, 
we  will  consider  hereafter.  If  we  run  back  in  our 
mental  history  we  shall  convince  ourselves  more  and 
more  how  very  early  we  suffered  the  temptations  to 
selfishness  or  the  impulses  to  sacrifice  to  prevail,  even 
though  later,  when  terrified  by  the  former,  we  threw 
ourselves  deliberately  into  the  latter.  So  early  seems 
sometimes  to  have  been  this  yielding  as  to  start  even 
the  thought  that  the  decisive  point  in  our  moral  his- 
tory belongs  to  that  remote  period  when  self-con- 
sciousness became  first  fully  manifest,  or  to  some  time 
not  remotely  subsequent,  when  the  impulsive  period 
was  over,  and  ends  and  motives  were  formed,  either 
prudential  or  sacrificial.  In  early  life  we  do  not  re- 
flect upon  our  own  choice,  and  thus  forget  or  are 
hardly  aware  that  we  have  made  a  choice. 


90  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

The  real  difficulty  still  remains,  however,  which  is, 
what  to  think  of  souls  cut  loose  from  the  earthly  en- 
vironment before  the  period  of  self-conscious  choice 
and  responsibility  arises.  If  these  are  thought  as 
entirely  and  essentially  human,  and  not  as  constituting 
another  order  of  souls  (which  notion  violates  the  idea 
of  an  organic  humanity),  it  must  follow  that  the  moral 
perfection  of  such  is  still  to  be,  through  their  own  act 
and  the  conditions  for  moral  choice  supplied,  hence 
that  the  environment  after  death  must  be  such  as  to 
awaken  self-consciousness.  The  principle  of  freedom 
or  self-determination  would  be  violated  to  think  that 
moral  perfection  and  blessedness  are  thrust  upon 
them  as  purely  passive.  In  such  regard  they  could 
not  be  thought  as  human.  Rather  the  conditions  and 
the  impetus  for  endless  self-development  are  in  every 
infant  human  soul  as  such.  No  physical  development, 
even  the  earliest,  goes  on  as  a  purely  physical  process. 
It  is  determined  ab  initio  from  the  spiritual  element 
implicit  in  it.  This  germ  has  vitality  which  cannot 
perish,  as  does  every  other  germ  not  irradiated  from 
the  spirit  realm.  There  must  then  be  development 
before  it  still,  after  the  brief  earthly  passage,  though 
under  another  environment.  Following  our  a  priori 
method,  there  must  be  for  such  also  an  environment 
wisely  and  precisely  adapted  to  the  unique  synthesis 
of  traits  or  inchoate  character  derived  through 
heredity  and  brief  earthly  experience.  Can  we  think 
for  such,  then,  that  the  moral  relation  is  to  be  de- 
termined after  death,  and  that  for  such  only  there  is  a 
future  probation  ?  If  so,  we  should  have  sufficient 
warrant  in  thought  for  extending  such  probation,  and 
making  it  comprise  not  only  the  undeveloped  infants, 


THE  DOCTRINE  OF  PROVIDENCE.  91 

but  the  imbeciles  and  the  lowest  savages.  But  here 
would  recur  again  the  former  difficulty  for  thought, 
viz.:  that  for  such  earthly  life  has  no  meaning.  They 
cannot  be  regarded  as  mere  animals,  under  a  scheme 
of  conditional  immortality,  and  sure,  like  the  animal, 
to  sink  into  extinction, — for  the  spiritual  soul,  how- 
ever clogged,  still  exists,  and  shows  that  it  existed 
whenever  any  clog  whatever  is  removed.  In  it  and 
before  it  is  still  the  possibility  of  endless  development. 
If  then  there  were  any  a  posteriori  evidence  at  hand 
and  confirmatory,  there  would  be  no  hindrance  to  still 
holding  to  our  a  priori  conclusion,  that  even  in  such 
cases  the  moral  trend  is  in  this  life  determined,  and, 
through  mystical  influence,  as  in  all  cases  whatever, 
such  determination  sure  to  issue  in  self-determina- 
tion, foreseen  by  God  and  the  environment  adapted 
accordingly.  This  simply  locates  the  will  back  of  the 
point  of  clear  self-consciousness,  and  uses  the  word 
to  represent  the  rudimentary  consciousness,  which 
last  has  spiritual  elements.  Hence  the  inference  that 
infants  dying  are  on  the  way  to  perfection,  since  the 
knowledge  of  God's  love  in  Christ  is  sure  to  reach 
them,  under  the  coming  environment,  and  that,  not 
to  be  possibly  rejected,  but  sure  to  be  welcomed,  and 
to  carry  them  to  the  ideal  end.  This  supply  of  the 
highest  possible  motive-spring,  in  every  case  needful 
for  perfection,  is  not  probation,  but  elevation. 

The  evidence  a  posteriori  for  this  position  is  indeed 
wanting,  since  the  conditions  do  not  exist  for  the 
analysis  by  human  thought  of  the  infant-conscious- 
ness. Yet  it  is  not  impossible  to  detect  essential 
differences  between  it  and  the  purely  animal  con- 
sciousness.    Here  is  a  field  for  future  study.     Such  a 


92  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

speculation  as  the  above  lands  us  in  no  contradiction, 
but  is  helpful  in  harmonizing  the  entirety  of  our 
thought.  We  have  not  so  much  a  logical  difficulty 
to  surmount  as  imperfect  knowledge  to  confess. 

The  general  conclusion  is,  that  if  human  life  has  a 
meaning,  and  this  be  that  it  is  the  occasion  of  moral 
probation,  or  determining  the  moral  trend,  then,  since 
God  is  all-wise  and  all-loving,  the  treatment  of  every 
spiritual  soul  by  him  is  that  precisely  adapted  to  his 
particular  needs  ;  and  we  have  thus  the  providential 
scheme.  Then,  the  inequality  of  human  conditions 
is  not  the  result  of  accident,  that  is,  brought  about  by 
physical  forces  only  or  purely  such,  but  these  are 
still  means  and  media  to  spiritual  ends.  Thus  every 
individual  soul  has  its  place  and  intent  in  the  Divine 
scheme.  The  moral  scheme  conceals  no  more  mystery 
than  the  abstractly  physical  one.  If  they  exist  in 
relation  and  the  latter  is  the  subordinate,  the  con- 
clusions reached  above  are  irrefragable.  They  can 
only  be  successfully  avoided  by  abandoning  the 
principle,  and  in  despair  exalting  the  physical  to 
supremacy,  in  which  case  hope,  and  all  clear  and  con- 
soling thought  even,  plunge  into  the  pessimistic  abyss. 

That  there  is  such  a  wise  and  loving  adaptation 
of  the  environment  to  the  needs  of  the  Christian 
believer  is,  undisputedly,  the  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ 
and  his  Apostles.  By  parity  of  reasoning,  having 
admitted  his  claim,  and  by  extending  into  concrete 
humanity  the  efficacy  of  his  sacrificial  Atonement,  the 
same  must  be  true  of  every  human  being, — that  he  is 
the  object  of  the  Divine  Love,  and  no  alien, — a  possi- 
ble member  of  the  ultimate  organism,  and  not  uncared 
for  meanwhile.    Observation,  imagination  suggest  per- 


THE  DOCTRINE  OF  PROVIDENCE.  93 

petual  doubts  of  all  this,  and  thus  leave  it  still  insecure 
for  thought,  except  in  the  grasp  of  faith.  Because  of 
these  doubts  we  have  other  explanations  aiming  to 
bring  the  question  within  the  sphere  of  understanding. 
But  they  fail  to  satisfy.  Through  them  the  unity  of 
thought,  which  seemed  to  be  gathering  into  fixedness, 
is  loosened  again,  and  hence  they  are  less  rational 
than  the  above  a  priori  scheme,  which  harmonizes 
with  Christian  faith,  and  the  dogmatic  utterances  of 
Christendom  which  have  maintained  persistence. 
These  hold  men  universally  responsible  and  charge 
them  with  sin.  These  hold  to  a  universality  in  the 
application  of  the  Divine  remedy.  These  deny  an  in- 
evitable reprobation,  and  make  salvation  possible  for 
all.  These  decline  to  assert  any  condemnation  for 
infants  or  imbeciles.  These  assert  that  there  is 
no  salvation  but  through  the  work  of  Christ,  and 
from  the  knowledge  of  Christ.  These  declare  an  all- 
wise  Providence.  These  make  faith  still  essential,  and 
do  not  admit  such  knowledge  to  be  possible  as  will 
make  it  needless.  All  which  declarations  persistently 
maintained  by  the  preponderant  Christian  thought, 
yet  often  inconsistently  or  obscurely  related,  it  is 
contended,  are  harmonized  by  the  scheme  thus  far  set 
forth;  which  thus,  it  is  claimed,  has  speculative  support, 
and  is  intrinsically  rational  and  trustworthy,  according 
to  the  only  valid  method  of  proof  ;  and  which,  it  is 
believed,  was  implicit  in  the  mind  of  the  New-Testa- 
ment writers,  and  might  have  exegetical  support. 

And  still  further  light  upon  and  confirmation  of 
such  scheme  may  be  had  by  considering  speculatively 
the  second  stadium  of  human  development — existence 
after  death. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE     SCHEME      OF      PROVIDENCE      AS      EXTENDED       INTO 
POST-MORTAL    EXPERIENCE. 

We  have  maintained  that  the  significance  of  human 
earthly  life  is  that  it  is  the  sphere  of  moral  probation 
and  the  initiation  of  moral  development.  It  is  now 
maintained  that  the  significance  of  the  succeeding 
stadium  is  that  it  becomes  a  further  and  necessary 
stage  of  such  development  by  being  the  occasion  and 
the  condition  of  se If- k7iow ledge  ;  that  the  environment 
is  such  as  to  remove  the  obscurations  which  exist  for 
such  self-knowledge  in  the  earthly  life,  (which  have 
their  use,  as  being  needful  for  the  production,  disci- 
plining and  strengthening  of  faith,)  and  to  make  the 
clear  vision  possible.  That  the  existence  after  death 
for  the  individual  soul,  and  for  the  aggregate  of  souls, 
is  a  mere  repetition  with  modifications  of  earthly  ex- 
perience, as  crude  thinking  is  prone  to  regard  it,  is  a 
conclusion  for  which  there  is  no  evidence.  The  con- 
necting link,  which  only  we  know,  between  the  soul- 
consciousness  and  the  material  universe,  the  bodily 
organism,  exists  no  longer.  And  if  we  think  the  soul 
to  fashion  for  itself  some  other  organism,  (since  we 
cannot  regard  it  as  utterly  out  of  relation  to  the  uni- 
verse,) we  must  infer  radical  difference  in  this  medium, 
and  not  without  warrant  import  into  it  any  of  the  rela- 
tions which  have  been  discarded.     Speculation  needs 

94 


THE  SCHEME  OF  PROVIDENCE.  95 

to  move  here  with  very  cautious  tread  to  maintain 
secure  foothold.  There  is  comparatively  little  diffi- 
culty in  thinking  and  imagining  existence  after  the 
resurrection  and  bodily  glorification,  which  is  the 
attainment,  and  the  instatement,  of  the  ideal  relation 
between  spirit  and  matter,  when  the  morally  perfected 
soul  fashions  for  itself  a  body  "  like  to  his  own  glorious 
body,"  and  finds  all  the  material  of  the  universe  fluent 
and  subservient.  But  the  intermediate  relation  is  one 
upon  which  imagination  can  lay  no  hold,  and  we  are 
left  to  the  results  of  pure  thinking,  aided,  however,  by 
statements  of  facts,  possibly  contained  in  the  Christian 
Scriptures,  which  may  confirm  our  inferences.  That 
consciousness  after  death  is  measurably  freed  from  time 
limitations,  and  mounts,  at  least,  above  the  slowness 
of  brain-movements,  many  things  in  our  actual  expe- 
rience render  probable,  as  in  the  alertness  of  psychi- 
cal movement  in  dreaming,  when  time  seems  so  far 
reduced  to  a  minimum,  as  to  arouse  even  the  suspi- 
cion that  it  may  not  exist  at  all  for  the  post-mortal 
consciousness, — and  from  the  fact  that  in  dreams 
events  take  the  form  of  visions,  and  occur  in  spatial 
rather  than  in  temporal  succession,  and  thus  lapse  into 
a  kind  of  intuition.  However  this  may  be,  if  the  post- 
mortal consciousness  is  freed  from  the  perturbation 
and  perplexities  of  the  phenomenal  world,  and  has 
sunk  nearer  to  the  centre  whence  alone  every  thing  is 
known  in  its  true  idea  and  essential  relations,  then 
thus  the  conditions  external  for  self-knowledge  exist ; 
— then  time-limitations  may  be  thought  to  be  so  far 
removed  as  that  the  entire  flow  of  earthly  experience 
is  held  in  one  vision,  in  a  present  consciousness,  in 
which  all  the  earthly  past  is  discoverable  and  knowa- 


96  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

ble,  so  that  the  subject  can  come  at  length  to  under- 
stand himself.  Here  then,  if  time  is  still  retained  in 
thought  as  the  condition  of  created  existence,  and  as 
involved  in  the  idea  of  development,  the  experience  of 
the  subject  is  no  longer  the  experience  of  an  outer 
and  phenomenal  world,  but  of  an  interior  and  real  one. 
Not  that  the  phenomenal  has  not  reality,  but  as  sub- 
jectively apprehended  it  is  only  imperfectly  real.  The 
full  knowledge  of  it  as  real  requires  the  knowledge  of 
it  as  ideal ;  and  we  may  think  that  such  knowledge 
can  be  had  only  under  such  condition  of  serenity 
wherein  the  outer  disturbance  has  been  hushed,  and 
its  changes  and  alternations  have  retired  from  the 
experience.  Thus  we  can  think  no  possibility  of  such 
action  as  is  required  of  us  now,  no  spheres  to  choose 
between,  no  set  of  relations  to  the  external  which  can 
become  habits,  and  thus  react  upon  the  moral  status. 
Moral  growth  will  derive  from  the  internal,  and 
will  be  had  by  contemplation,  and  not  by  action. 
Motives  will  have  sunk  back  to  their  spiritual  form, 
and  will  not  respect  the  outer  world,  but  the  soul  it- 
self in  its  character,  and  other  souls  in  the  same.  Love 
for  other  conscious  souls,  and  desire  for  their  sake,  as 
well  as  for  one's  own  sake  to  coalesce  with  them,  or 
repulsion  from  them,  must  still  exist,  and  determine 
the  consciousness,  but  will  not  take  the  shape  of  such 
activities  as  the  phenomenal  world  renders  needful. 
They  may  long  for  each  other's  perfection,  and  know- 
ing that  results  are  still  in  the  Divine  hand,  usurping 
no  judgment  of  others,  and  knowing  themselves  to  be 
progressive  still,  may  pray  for  each  other,  and  for 
the  souls  still  abiding  in  the  world, — or  else  we  must 
think  the  sense  of  fellowship,  and  the  desire  for  it,  or 


THE  SCHEME  OF  PROVIDENCE.  97 

for  any  other  than  the  mere  negative  attitude,  to  have 
expired,  and  that  the  soul  must  shrink  back  upon 
itself,  and  experience  in  itself  the  desired  indepen- 
dence, which  is  the  essential  idea  of  spiritual  evil. 

Under  such  conditions  we  do  not  see  how  a  moral 
or  religious  probation  is  any  longer  possible,  since 
there  are  no  alternatives  of  action,  the  choice  of  which 
may  create  the  good  or  the  evil  relation.  That  a  soul 
removed  from  earthly  experience,  or  having  had  no 
earthly  experience,  and  knowing  of  no  consequence  of 
its  choice,  can  be  called  upon  to  love  or  not  to  love, 
is  not  only  unthinkable  for  the  reasons  above  given, 
but  the  offer  is  needless,  since  it  has  determined  itself, 
or  has  been  determined  already  upon  the  earth,  and 
the  moral  relation  consciously  or  unconsciously  cre- 
ated. It  is  already  loving  or  unloving  from  the  fore- 
gone conditions.  If  the  knowledge  of  Christ  comes, 
and  the  Love  of  God  appeals  as  a  new  spring  to  its 
moral  energy,  and  new  light  for  its  moral  growth,  the 
free  acceptance  of  the  same  is  already  secured,  either 
by  its  having  already  in  the  earthly  career  responded 
to  the  fainter  intimations  of  the  Divine  Love  and  the 
Divine  Will,  or  because  its  native  structure  is  such 
that  it  will  surely  so  respond, — or  else  it  has  by  its  own 
will  and  previous  determination  lost  the  desire  and 
the  power  so  to  respond.  In  this  latter  case  we  can 
only  think  its  moral  recovery  possible  by  supposing 
other  and  unknown  influences  ;  in  which  supposition 
we  run  the  risk  of  implying  that  it  is  rescued  in  spite 
of  itself,  and  by  the  annihilation  of  its  freedom  :  all 
which  constitutes  an  arbitrary  classification  of  the 
members  of  the  human  race,  and  forfeits  its  organic 
unity.     The  difficulties  for  speculation  here  are  very 

Vol.  II. 


98  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

great,  and  notions  of  transmigration  intrude  them- 
selves (as  they  have  done  plentifully  in  human 
thought),  but  these  are  slippery  stays  and  have  no 
evidence  (and  in  Eastern  thought  the  proof  is  not 
speculative  but  alleged  to  be  empirical).  What  diffi- 
culty remains  unsurmountable  we  see  reduces  itself  in 
a  last  analysis,  to  the  old  problem,  the  origin  and 
nature,  and  hence  the  destiny,  of  moral  evil.  And 
secure  speculation  here  is  not  to  be  hoped  for,  and 
we  have  pushed  it  to  the  farthest  possible  limit,  be- 
yond which  is  the  utter  darkness. 

The  knowledge  of  Christ  and  the  Divine  Love 
shown  in  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  is  indeed  necessary 
to  call  forth  the  sufficient  response,  the  alone  motive- 
spring,  which  can  arouse  all  the  potentialities  of  the 
soul,  and  urge  it  to  its  perfection.  Hence  it  is  not 
arbitrarily  true,  or  true  by  an  arrangement  that  can 
be  changed,  that  any  soul  can  be  saved  only  through 
the  knowledge  of  Christ,  but  absolutely  true,  and  that 
as  a  result  of  the  unalterable  constitution  of  the  uni- 
verse, the  condition  for  all  created  existence,  which  is 
no  other  than  the  constitution  of  the  Godhead  itself 
reflected  in  the  created  universe,  whose  design  and 
intent  is  the  highest  possible  creature.  But  the  result 
for  the  soul  of  this  knowledge  is  determined  by  its 
foregone  moral  decision. 

For  all  these  reasons,  probation  after  death  cannot 
be  allowed  to  enter  into  our  scheme  of  thought,  as 
not  only  rendering  the  earthly  life  meaningless,  and 
introducing  an  arbitrary  division  in  humanity,  severing 
it,  and  losing  the  idea  of  it  as  an  organism,  but  as  in 
itself  unthinkable  and  unimaginable  except  by  pro- 
longing without  warrant  the  conditions  of  the  earthly 
life  into  the  life  after  death. 


THE  SCHEME  OF  PROVIDENCE.  99 

All  this  has  a  bearing  upon  our  doctrine  of  Provi- 
dence. In  the  midst  of  this  seeming  play  of  physical 
forces,  and  human  interference  with  the  same,  God  has 
his  own  plan,  which  He  is  securely  and  certainly 
accomplishing.  The  diversions  of  physical  force  for 
human  subjective  ends  He  can  control,  and  does 
control  as  completely  as  He  does  the  unmolested 
forces  themselves.  They  are  made  to  blend  into  and 
subserve  the  Divine  design.  This  design  is  the  per- 
fection of  each  and  every  individual  soul,  yet  still  by 
the  respect  of  human  freedom, — the  completion  of 
the  moral  organism,  the  commonwealth  of  love,  and 
a  universe  correspondent.  This  design  requires  that 
the  conditions  for  the  moral  recovery  of  every  spirit- 
ual soul  be  supplied,  so  that  it  is  possible  ;  and  also 
that  the  environment  be  adapted  in  each  particular 
case  to  accomplish  this  end,  to  secure,  if  possible,  the 
right  moral  decision.  It  requires  that  the  environ- 
ment be  so  adapted  that  the  particular  combination  of 
traits  in  each  individual  which  constitutes  character 
shall  be  harmonized,  yet  so  that  when  morally  per- 
fected it  shall  still  be  unique  and  like  no  other.  It 
requires  also  that  the  environment  be  so  adapted  as 
to  bring  into  reality  during  the  entire  career  all  the 
potentialities  for  the  utmost  development  and  eleva- 
tion. It  requires  that  the  mystical  influence  to  adapt 
the  vital  and  physical  changes  to  this  progressive 
moral  and  religious  development  be  incessant.  In 
this  various  adaptation  the  earthly  career  in  its  fulness 
is  selected  for  some.  In  others  a  career  less  complete, 
to  be  supplemented  by  post-mortal  influences.  All 
that  can  be  done  by  Divine  Love  for  every  soul  is 
done.     All  which  is  only  saying  in  other  words  what 


ioo  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

Jesus  Christ  himself  said,  or  is  implied  in  what  was 
said  by  him  or  his, — and  thus  we  have  the  Christian 
doctrine  of  Providence,  to  hold  to  which,  amid  tempta- 
tion to  think  otherwise,  and  to  act  correspondingly,  is 
the  trial  of  faith. 

Such  doctrine  of  Providence  also  explains,  and  rec- 
onciles us  to  the  late  beginning  and  slow  spread  of 
Christianity.  In  these  respects  it  simply  follows  the 
analogy  of  God's  manifest  doings,  which  are  every- 
where progressive.  This  is  the  unalterable  fact,  that 
the  idea  is  only  realized  as  man  can  follow  and  appre- 
hend it  ;  and  man's  own  achievements  in  conquering 
nature  and  discovering  her  secrets  is  a  necessary  con- 
dition. We  see  how  wondrously  during  the  past 
three  fourths  of  a  century  this  human  dominion  over 
nature  has  been  extended,  increasing  the  speed  of 
human  progress  a  thousand-fold  by  the  new  channels 
of  communicating  thought.  This  is  the  distinctive 
peculiarity  of  our  age  ;  and  through  it  are  provided 
the  conditions  for  new  speed  and  success  in  mission- 
ary enterprise.  This  could  not  have  been  before. 
Our  very  impatience  over  the  slowness  of  Christian 
progress,  and  desire  that  all  the  Divine  work  should  be 
summed  up  in  some  brief  space  of  time,  if  it  could  be 
gratified,  would  cause  it  to  run  beyond  our  compre- 
hension, would  deprive  man  of  his  proper  share  of  it, 
and  degrade  him  in  the  estimation  of  himself  as  an 
instrument,  would  dislocate  the  relation  of  the  moral 
and  physical,  would  indeed  be  a  bar  to  human 
recovery,  as  lifting  it  above  the  necessity  of  faith,  and 
furnishing  no  trial  to  strengthen  it. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE     CHRISTIAN       ELECTION,      AS       CONSTITUTING      THE 

CHURCH HOW    RELATED    TO    THE    ETERNAL 

ELECTION,    OR    PREDESTINATION. 

The  providential  selection  or  election  of  those  who 
constitute  the  Christian  Church  is  then  no  chance 
matter,  but  has  its  purpose  and  propriety.  Its  seem- 
ing limitations  have  benevolent  significance.  Only 
thereby  can  the  loving  zeal,  the  outcome  of  faith 
and  the  means  of  strengthening  it,  to  extend  Chris- 
tion  knowledge  and  privilege,  exist.  Those  who  are 
not  selected  are  not  neglected,  but  it  is  incumbent 
upon  the  elected  ones  to  give  the  knowledge  of  their 
own  wealth,  seeing  that  all  these  others  must  come  to 
share  it  for  their  own  perfection, — and  to  stop  the 
ravages  of  evil  on  earth  by  infusing  the  principle  of 
recovery,  which  is  alone  sufficient.  Their  effort  to 
reform  mankind  from  this  interior  principle  is  of  the 
highest  obligation,  and  they  never  desist  in  it,  how- 
ever they  are  sometimes  tempted  to  rely  upon  exter- 
nal, mechanical,  and  repressive  means,  which  may  or 
may  not  fall  in  with  the  Divine  providential  scheme. 
This  last,  so  far  as  it  can  be  wisely  undertaken,  is  the 
province  of  the  State  and  not  of  the  Church.  Time 
is  only  relative  ;  and  if  we  find  fault  with  the  slowness 
of  the  spread  of  Christianity,  we  might  on  grounds  as 
just  find  fault  with  it  if  it  was  not  comprised  within 


102  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

the  limits  of  a  single  generation,  or  indeed  accom- 
plished simultaneously  for  every  human  soul  ;  we 
might  on  grounds  equally  valid  complain  of  the  slow- 
ness of  the  improvement  in  the  individual  character. 
The  present  speed  is  comparatively  as  great  for  the 
larger  man,  the  race,  as  it  is  for  the  lesser  one,  the 
individual ;  and  if  in  this  latter  case  we  find  inequality 
in  the  speed  of  growth,  we  should  expect  to  find  it  in 
the  different  races  of  the  earth.  In  each  case  it  is  depen- 
dent upon  external  conditions,  which  we  can  in  thought 
measurably  supply,  and  upon  secret  influences  which 
we  cannot  trace,  yet  often  subsequently  find  to  have 
been  real  and  powerful. 

These  ones,  selected  to  constitute  the  visible  body 
of  believers  in  Christ,  are  the  election  of  God,  the 
Church,  which  is  or  should  be  a  visible  organization, 
abstractly  and  ideally  identical  with,  though  not  yet 
concretely  representing  the  organism  of  the  new 
humanity  in  Christ.  Therefore  the  visible  election  is 
not  the  same  with  the  absolute  and  eternal  election, 
or  those  who  will  be  found  to  be  perfected  at  the  day 
of  consummation.  It  must  follow  from  all  this  that 
there  must  have  been  subjective  fitness  in  those  whom 
the  gospel  reaches,  and  who  accept  it,  and  also  that 
there  has  been  subjective  fitness  that  the  gospel  offer 
shall  have  been  made  here  on  earth  to  those  who 
reject  it.  The  doctrine  of  absolute  predestination,  or 
eternal  election,  must  then  be  so  thought  as  to  recon- 
cile any  seeming  contradiction  between  moral  free- 
dom and  Determinism.  The  first  must  be  strenuously 
adhered  to  in  order  to  maintain  responsibility  and  the 
validity  of  the  moral  distinction.  But  likewise  the 
predestination  of  the  holy  ones  to  their  holiness  and 


THE  CHRISTIAN  ELECTION.  103 

their  perfection  is  to  be  maintained,  and  is  no  denial 
of  their  freedom  ;  rather  the  method  whereby  formal 
is  transmuted  into  real  freedom.  But  the  predestina- 
tion of  the  persistently  evil  ones  to  their  inevitable 
unholiness  and  consequent  failure  to  reach  the  ideal 
end  cannot  be  maintained  without  contradicting  the 
primum  of  moral  freedom,  without  destroying  the 
conception  of  guilt  and  leaving  the  sense  of  it  unac- 
counted for,  without  making  God  the  author  of  moral 
evil,  and  thus  denying  the  absolute  distinction,  and 
enthroning  as  the  First  Principle  a  concrete  power,  to 
whose  constitution  love  is  not  essential.  The  whole 
question  of  the  actuality  of  moral  evil  and  its  destiny, 
if  it  can  be  thought  to  maintain  itself  in  perpetuity, 
must  be  left  in  the  obscurity  in  which  we  found  it ; 
man  only  wastes  his  effort  in  attempting  to  solve  it, 
and  is  mistaken  in  thinking  its  solution,  if  it  could  be 
had,  would  be  a  gain,  not  purchased  by  a  greater  loss. 
What  speculations  as  to  its  destiny,  if  it  can  maintain 
itself  persistently,  can  be  made  plausible,  will  be  con- 
sidered in  the  proper  place.  What  more  can  be  said 
in  this  connection  is  this : 

All  the  difficulties  and  obscurations  upon  these 
topics  have  come  from  two  sources, — either  by  hav- 
ing adopted  some  theory  purporting  to  explain  the 
existence  of  moral  evil,  or  else  from  a  false  psychol- 
ogy, which  regards  the  human  will  as  something 
morally  indifferent.  Against  which  latter  notion 
Determinism  can  always  make  its  position  good. 
The  will  is  not  indifferent.  It  is  already,  in  the 
Divine  idea,  and  in  its  innermost  and  structural  pre- 
disposition, determined,  and  that  Godward.  This  is 
the  Divine  Predestination,  and  the  only  form  of  the 


104  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

same  which  can  be  maintained  without  denying  hu- 
man freedom.  Thus  the  nature,  in  its  idea  and  origi- 
nal trend,  would  flow,  and  that  freely,  towards  good, 
were  it  not  thwarted  and  turned  aside  by  an  alien  or 
at  least  contradictory  influence.  Its  flow  towards 
good,  becomes  its  own  flow,  and  is  made  secure  by 
its  being  placed  in  a  sphere  in  which  temptation  and 
resistance  are  possible,  thus  affording  the  conditions 
for  self-determination  and  the  acquisition  of  spiritual' 
strength.  This  possibility  of  moral  evil  must  exist 
for  every  human  soul,  but  it  may  take  for  some  the 
form  of  actual  temptation,  as  for  the  progenitors  of 
the  human  race  and  for  a  portion  of  their  descendants  ; 
or  it  may  take  for  some  the  form  of  mere  ideal  presenta- 
tion, as  for  infants  when  awakening  to  self-conscious- 
ness, or  as  for  angels,  if  we  suppose  probation  for 
them.  In  such  case  the  alternatives  are  purely  spirit- 
ual, are  dependence  and  independence,  i.  ^.,good  and 
evil  presented  in  pure  form,  and  not  mixed  and  disguised 
as  in  earthly  experience.  In  one  sense  evil  is  meta- 
physically thinkable  as  possible  for  a  free  soul,  but  in 
another  sense  it  is,  when  sufficient  spiritual  fibre  has 
been  attained,  morally  unthinkable.  Freedom  again 
is  not  indifferent.  Formal  freedom  belongs  only  to 
the  earthly  sphere,  and  deals  with  mixed  and  actual 
temptation,  while  real  freedom  may  be  thought  as  in 
the  post-mortal  existence  necessarily  rejecting  any  ideal 
presentation  of  independence  or  unlovingness.  Its 
real  freedom,  or  its  indefectible  coalescence  with  the 
good  principle,  is  made  secure  by  the  absolute  law  and 
method  of  all  existence,  the  law  of  correspondence  ; 
and  is  the  Divine  Predestination.  But  as  mem- 
ber of  the  human  stock,  and  as  having  shared  in  the 


THE  CHRISTIAN  ELECTION.  105 

universal  disease  and  its  consequences,  this  law  and 
method  require  that  the  remedy  shall  have  been  ap- 
plied, and  been  operative  and  sufficient, — the  remedy 
purchased  by  the  death  of  Christ,  i.  e.,  the  setting  in 
play  the  moral,  mental,  and  physical  forces  which 
bring  about  the  inward  cure,  and  the  outer  corre- 
spondence. To  hold  a  probation  for  infants  after 
death  would  be  to  hold  that  rejection  of  good,  and 
hence  rejection  of  Christ,  is  still  possible  for  them  ; 
i.  e.,  that  they  may  choose  evil  without  knowing  of 
any  attractiveness  of  it,  except  pure  spiritual  inde- 
pendence. It  would  be  to  think  that  no  result  of  the 
Atoning-  sacrifice  of  Christ  has  reached  them,  or  that 
it  has  been  inoperative  and  ineffectual,  thus  that  no 
connection  with  him  has  ever  issued  ; — or  else  that 
they  are  so  intrinsically  and  purely  evil,  that  any  holy 
influence  could  not  reach  them,  that  they  are  not 
afforded  even  the  conditions  of  recovery  which  this 
life  furnishes,  and  can  only  choose  evil,  and  may 
choose  evil  in  its  pure  and  intensest  form,  of  spiritual 
independence.  Thus  to  think  a  post-mortal  probation 
for  infants  implies  a  possible  doctrine  of  reprobation, 
or  predestination  to  evil,  against  which  again  is 
objected  that  thereby  the  foundation  for  all  moral 
distinctions  is  undermined.  We  cannot  therefore 
exempt  such  from  the  predestination  to  good  ;  and 
regarding  the  will  as  not  indifferent,  but  as  the  focus- 
sing of  the  inborn  character  in  consciousness,  must 
regard  such  as  having  the  right  choice  inchoate  and 
involved  in  their  very  structure.  On  grounds,  there- 
fore, as  valid  as  human  thinking  can  sink  upon,  while 
still  admitting  the  insolvability  of  the  problem  of  moral 
evil,  (which  obliges  us  to  hold  all  truth  whatever  in 


106  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

faith,  and  makes  all  knowledge  incomplete,  as  not  uni- 
versally related  in  itself,)  we  may  hold — that  all  men 
are  predestined  to  good,  to  be  attained,  however,  by 
their  own  spiritual  effort,  which  is  still,  however,  a 
form  of  the  Divine  activity  ;  that  the  impediments  in 
the  way  of  the  success  of  such  effort  have  been  re- 
moved by  the  work  of  Christ,  so  that  they  are  free 
and  responsible  still  ;  that  for  a  portion  of  the  hu- 
man race  a  conscious  probation  here  on  earth  is 
chosen,  involving  a  resistance  to  actual  temptation, 
and  rendering  possible  the  right  moral  relation  ; 
that  such  decide  for  themselves  here  on  earth  their 
moral  tendency,  and  when  the  knowledge  of  Christ 
reaches  them  (as  it  must,  or  they  can  mount  no  higher 
in  the  scale  of  being),  either  welcome  and  feel  the  force 
of  the  motive-spring  which  it  elicits,  or  else,  and  as 
result  of  their  foregone  earthly  decision,  find  it  uninflu- 
ential  and  inoperative.  We  are  not  forbidden  (rather 
the  New-Testament  Scriptures  on  the  whole  warrant 
it)  in  our  thought  and  imagination  to  reduce  the  num- 
ber of  these  to  the  lowest  thinkable  limit,  knowing  the 
untrustworthiness  of  human  judgments ;  though  the 
possibility  and  hence  the  actuality  of  such  a  residuum, 
which  has  escaped  the  reformative  influence,  must  still 
be  retained  in  our  thought. 

We  may  hold,  also,  that  for  another  portion  of  the 
human  race  an  earthly  probation,  in  the  form  of  de- 
liberate will  choice  has  not  been  made  needful.  Rea- 
son being  undeveloped  and  the  conditions  for  such 
deliberate  choice  non-existent,  the  trend  of  their  being 
through  the  original  predisposition  to  good  is  main- 
tained, the  result  of  the  evil  principle,  working  through 
their  physical  being  and  by  the  principle  of  heredity, 


THE  CHRISTIAN  ELECTION.  107 

having  been  warded  off  and  annulled  by  the  mystical 
activity  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  too  accomplishes 
their  regeneration,  or  incorporation  into  Christ.  Thus 
evil  can  be  known  to  them  only  in  its  pure  form,  as 
an  ideal  presentation  of  a  possible  spiritual  indepen- 
dence, and  their  rejection  of  it  is  spontaneous  and 
already  secured.  This  whole  thesis,  therefore,  is 
founded  on  the  belief,  which  experience  rather  than 
logic  confirms,  that  human  nature,  however  deeply 
diseased,  is  not  so  radically  corrupt  but  that  the  recu- 
perative tendency  is  stronger  than  its  contrary,  and 
has  been  fostered  by  the  whole  scheme  of  Providence, 
the  success  of  which  was,  however,  secured,  by  the 
culminating  exhibition  of  the  Divine  love,  in  the 
death  of  Christ. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE    CHRISTIAN    CHURCH    AS    A     VISIBLE     ORGANIZATION. 

That  the  ultimate  revelation  of  God  in  Christ 
should  be  signalized  by  the  founding  of  a  visible  in- 
stitution is  entirely  in  analogy  with  what  had  gone 
before.  The  human  family,  expanding  into  social  life 
and  government,  and  in  which  the  state  is  implicit,  is 
such  an  institution.  It  exists  for  physical  security  and 
comfort,  to  cultivate  the  benevolent  sympathies,  to 
secure  beneficent  undertakings  and  results,  thus  to 
multiply  enjoyment,  to  hasten  the  subjugation  of 
nature,  to  supply  material  for  knowledge,  to  discipline 
the  human  will.  Thus  the  family  and  the  state  have 
purposes  which  are  in  harmony  with,  and  lead  towards, 
moral  ends.  They  tend,  if  not  interfered  with  by  hu- 
man selfishness,  to  secure,  through  mutual  limitation, 
concession  and  sacrifice,  a  commonwealth  of  love  and 
a  favoring  environment.  But  this  interference  from 
human  perversity  occurs,  and  thus  society  has  perpet- 
ually to  heal  its  own  wounds,  and  the  desired  com- 
monwealth comes  to  seem  far  off,  if  not  unattainable. 
Some  positive  principle,  some  new  and  stronger 
motive-spring,  some  unseen  influence  beside,  must 
be  supplied  to  secure  success.  We  have  the  revela- 
tion of  God  in  Christ  as  furnishing  the  motive-spring, 
and  the  new  correspondent  activity  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.      Thus  between   the  Christian  believers  there 

108 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  109 

comes  to  exist  a  new  bond  and  there  is  before  them 
a  new  experience.  There  is  needed  thenceforth  not 
only  the  sacrifice  required  for  earthly  comfort  and 
improvement,  but  the  sacrifice  required  for  spiritual 
perfection  and  to  propagate  the  new  idea  and  the  new 
influences.  Those  bearing  the  same  relation  to  Christ 
must  needs  consociate,  not  only  from  sympathy  in  a 
common  possession,  but  from  the  necessity  which 
love  has  to  satisfy  itself  by  extending  its  objects,  and 
that  without  waste  of  energy  they  may  work  together 
for  the  same  end.  The  new  human  family  has  a  new 
impulse,  and  its  members  need  each  other's  support  to 
be  confirmed  in  the  new  relation.  Thus  emerges  the 
idea  of  the  Christian  Church,  which  exists  not  only  to 
extend  itself,  but  to  edify  and  elevate  all  within  itself, 
not  only  by  keeping  fresh  in  their  consciousness  the 
new  relation  of  mutual  love,  but  the  profounder  tie  of 
love  to  God,  which  symbolizes  itself  in  adoration  or 
worship,  and  is  a  further  step  towards  the  ultimate 
assimilation. 

As  such  a  visible  society,  with  manifold  activity  be- 
fore it,  the  Church  needs  organization,  in  order  that  its 
zeal  may  be  wisely  directed.  It  needs  means  to  keep 
its  treasure  of  truth  essentially  unimpaired,  in  order 
that  its  consciousness  may  be  healthy  and  true,  and 
thereby  be  ensured  its  own  success.  It  needs  means 
to  build  up  the  holy  character,  in  order  that  this  may 
become  an  attractive  thing  to  the  world  regarding  it, 
and  secure  its  own  extension.  As  moral  truths  guiding 
activity  are  kept  fresh  through  the  family,  society,  and 
state,  so  religious  truths,  moral  in  the  deepest  sense, 
are  kept  fresh  and  energetic  through  the  Christian 
Church.   If  this  be,  as  the  others,  a  Divine  institution, 


no  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

all  practical  morality  must  in  consequence  of  it  be  re- 
thought ;  since,  if  the  ends  and  purposes  of  the  Church 
respect  all  mankind,  all  life-plans  for  any  individual 
must  be  made  respective  of  these  ends,  and  the  whole 
career  of  activity  thus  determined.  Man  has  not  only, 
as  before,  to  be  honest  and  truthful  and  compassionate 
and  beneficent,  but  he  has  to  sacrifice  much  that  the 
ends  of  the  Church  may  be  attained  and  the  Divine 
will  accomplished. 

If  such  a  consociation  is  to  have  visibility  and  obli- 
gation it  must  have  fixedness.  It  must  be  known  to 
be  what  it  is.  Therefore  it  must  have  visible  marks. 
It  must  be  evidenced  as  existing  to  human  sense  and 
imagination  as  well  as  for  human  thought.  It  must  be 
seen  and  known  to  exist  not  only  ideally  but  really. 
Could  its  marks  and  tokens  disappear  or  be  changed 
at  the  caprice  of  men,  it  could  not  be  identified.  They 
must  have  such  authority  behind  them  as  to  secure 
their  own  permanence.  Something  more  than  pres- 
ent and  individual  human  claim  to  represent  it  is 
needed  to  appeal  successfully  to  human  scrutiny. 
There  must  be  historic  continuity  enough  to  evidence 
the  fixedness  and  identity  of  what  claims  to  be  the 
society  of  believers  in  Christ,  and  having  the  Divine 
commission. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  there  are  reasons,  spring- 
ing from  the  very  nature  and  idea  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion itself,  why  these  visible  marks  and  tokens  should 
be  as  few  as  possible.  This  seems  capable  of  demon- 
stration. The  root  idea  of  Christianity  is  love  ;  t.  e., 
spontaneity,  or  activity  from  a  pure  and  changeless 
yet  free  fountain.  Because  of  the  introduction  of  op- 
posing propulsions,  and  the  resulting  obscuration  and 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  in 

bewilderment  of  the  human  mind  and  will,  love  needs 
for  its  regulation  to  have  prescribed  for  it  as  its  form, 
law,  i.  e.,  rules  and  maxims  framed  in  accordance  with 
the  ultimate  end,  and  the  immediate  end  as  relative  to 
that.  In  default  of  human  foresight,  these  maxims 
must  either  be  prescribed  ab  extra,  or  else  must  be 
slowly  and  carefully  reached  and  agreed  upon.  The 
farther  mankind,  or  any  individual  of  it  is,  through 
these  contradictory  propulsions,  from  the  spontaneous 
fulfilment  of  what  love  requires  and  dictates,  the  more 
need  is  there  of  law  ;  the  nearer  one  is  to  such  free 
fulfilment,  the  less  need  of  law.  Mankind  in  its  early 
stage  of  development,  like  the  child,  needs  abundant 
prohibitions  and  prescriptions.  These,  if  the  develop- 
ment is  healthy,  become  less  needful,  fewer,  relax 
themselves,  and  by  degrees  become  needless.  The 
habit  of  obedience  has  become  second  nature,  and  by 
and  by  the  time  may  come  when  the  man  can  be 
trusted  to  his  harmonized  tendencies,  having  been  in- 
wrought into  a  consistent  synthesis.  Thus  love  is  the 
fulfilment  of  the  law,  and  any  prescription  whatever 
is  only  legitimated  as  springing  from  the  requirements 
of  such  love  and  its  ideal  end,  and  tending  to  issue  in 
the  realization  of  the  same,  the  harmonized  common- 
wealth. Thus  the  ordinances  which  in  the  infancy  of 
society  are  required  and  are  beneficial,  by  degrees  be- 
come burdensome  and  needless.  The  Hebrew  law, — 
that  code  of  prohibitions  and  minute  prescriptions,  had 
its  own  purpose  and  use  in  training  the  people  in  obe- 
dience. It  was  a  schoolmaster  having  care  of  his 
pupils  till  they  should  graduate  into  a  higher  insti- 
tution, where  they  might  be  freed  from  his  multifarious 
rules  and  be  measurably  trusted  to  themselves.     But 


ii2  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

no  such  transition  for  the  existing  human  being  can  be 
made  suddenly  or  extensively,  and  law  must  still  exist, 
though  in  a  form  of  diminished  complexity,  and  grow- 
ing simplicity.  The  moral  law,  more  profoundly  based 
now.  since  Jesus  taught  and  died,  and  in  conse- 
quence of  the  new  personal  relation  to  God  now  be- 
come possible,  requires  that  a  new  adjustment  of  the 
concrete  situation  to  the  recipients  of  the  gospel  be 
made.  Yet  while  maxims  and  ordinances  are  still 
needful,  they  too  must  undergo,  as  the  principle  of 
love  strengthens  and  becomes  more  trustworthy,  dim- 
inution and  relaxing  change  as  mere  prescriptions. 
The  welfare  of  Christian  society,  ideally,  is  to  depend 
less  upon  these,  and  more  upon  its  own  loving  im- 
pulses. This  gradual  diminution  and  relaxation,  this 
merging  into  spontaneity,  must  attach  also  to  the 
Church  as  an  organization,  so  far  as  it  makes  real  pro- 
gress in  assimilation  to  its  guiding  principle  ;  while 
any  retrogression  is  sure  to  be  marked,  and  should  be, 
by  greater  complication  of  law.  To  rule  such  change 
in  one  way  or  another  is  so  delicate  a  task,  that  it  is 
not  to  be  wondered  that  Christian  people  and  their 
guides  should  make  many  mistakes.  Yet  the  principle 
holds  good  that  any  ordinances,  maxims,  advices, 
which  are  of  human  origin,  and  the  result  of  necessa- 
rily imperfect  foresight,  no  matter  how  wise  and 
adapted  to  present  needs  they  may  be,  can  have  in 
themselves  no  necessary  permanency.  The  same  human 
authority  which  at  one  time  devised  them  and  found 
them  useful,  may  at  another  time  find  another  set  of 
ordinances  indicated  and  more  useful.  The  wisdom 
of  any  such  change,  however,  may  be  questioned 
beforehand  ;  since  it  may  have  been  rashly  made,  and 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  113 

from  motives  not  free  from  suspicion  ;  and  since  by 
breaking  or  confusing  the  historic  continuity  of  the 
organization,  it  may  weaken  the  confidence  of  many 
and  render  identification  more  difficult.  But  still  the 
principle  holds  true,  that  in  the  progress  of  Christian 
growth  in  the  holy  character  the  more  and  more  law 
requires  to  be  simplified.  If  ever  the  law  of  ordi- 
nances is  by  authority  made  to  continue,  when  such 
simplification  or  greater  laxity  is  indicated,  it  is  sure 
to  meet  with  resistance,  to  gender  strife,  and  often  is 
followed  by  rash  disintegration  or  separation.  Admit 
on  the  one  side  the  progressive  principle  that  all  ordi- 
nances of  human  origin  merely  may  require  to  be 
changed,  or  discarded  when  the  occasion  is  sufficient, 
— and  the  strength  of  the  conservative  principle  comes 
to  be  seen,  that  such  change  or  rejection  should  be 
careful  and  deliberate,  and  ordinarily  slow  and  grad- 
ual. It  is  most  unwise  to  break  with  the  past,  or  to 
undervalue  what  it  thought  and  what  it  did.  And  it 
is  equally  unwise  and  more  shallow  to  underrate  the 
present  and  the  future  ;  and  not  to  see  that  the  Chris- 
tian consciousness,  having  a  Divine  impettis,  must 
needs  have  been  progressive,  and  that  the  insight  of 
the  present  is  in  many  ways  deeper  than  the  insight 
of  the  past.  In  what  respect  either  had  or  has  the 
advantage  over  the  other  is  an  enquiry  that  will  be 
made  later  on. 

But,  we  have  said,  the  Christian  Church  must  have 
fixed  marks  by  which  it  may  be  identified  ;  yet  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  principle  by  which  law  or  prescrip- 
tion gradually  merges  into  spontaneity,  these  marks 
must  not  go  beyond  what  is  needed  for  such  fixedness, 
and  must  be  as  few  as  possible.     Any  thing  more 

Vol.  II. 


H4  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

than  these  is  liable  to  change,  but  these  must  be  res- 
cued from  any  possibility  of  change  or  abandonment 
by  being  presented  by  an  undisputed  authority.  And 
that  ordinances  which  are  to  be  the  visible  tokens  of 
the  Christian  association  may  not  be  felt  to  be  a 
bondage,  they  may  be  lifted  up  into  a  higher  plane, 
and  be  not  merely  "  signs  of  profession,"  but  symbols 
of  mystical  influence.  The  whole  Jewish  ceremonial 
was  swept  away  by  the  early  Christian  society.  We 
read  in  the  New  Testament  of  the  last  parting  pangs 
of  the  separation.  What  little  was  for  a  time  con- 
ceded to  Jewish  ways  of  thinking,  gradually  dislocated 
from  its  previous  standpoint  and  disabused  of  its 
prejudices,  was  soon  parted  with.  That  it  was 
done  so  speedily  shows  the  might,  truth,  and  attract- 
iveness of  the  new  conceptions.  In  the  stead  of  this 
ceremonial,  the  apostles,  who  seem  to  have  had,  pro- 
fessed to  have,  and  were  acknowledged  as  having, 
plenary  powers,  retained  only  the  two  rites,  whose 
institution  was  due  to  Jesus  himself,  Baptism,  and  the 
Holy  Supper.  These,  as  tokens  of  the  Christian  con- 
fession, must  be  unchangeable,  or  the  identification  of 
the  Church  is  put  in  peril.  The  one  fact  to  be  no- 
ticed likewise,  superadded  to  the  fact  that  these  two 
rites  were  prescribed,  is  that  Jesus,  before  his  depart- 
ure, gave  commission  and  plenary  powers  to  certain 
ones  to  carry  on  his  work,  declaring  that  their  work 
should  be  his.  Thus  would  seem  to  be  constituted  a 
third  mark  of  identification,  a  ministry.  How  far  the 
wisdom  of  these  thus  commissioned  was  perfect  and 
infallible  ;  whether  their  power  was  in  the  fullest 
sense  plenary  ;  whether  it  was  only  provisional  or 
transitory,  or  to  be  extended  to  successors,   and  if 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  115 

so  extended,  with  what  modifications  and  changes  ; 
whether  there  is  any  fixed  rule  for  the  transmission 
of  their  authority  and  power  ;  whether  there  is  any 
substitute  for  their  superhuman  wisdom  ;  whether  in- 
deed their  wisdom  was  superhuman,  and  if  so,  by 
what  means  ; — all  these  are  questions  upon  which 
there  has  been  abundant  controversy,  and  upon  which 
the  opinions  of  men  seem  almost  hopelessly  divided. 
They  may  be,  as  they  have  been,  treated  of  as  an  his- 
torical or  exegetical  enquiry,  or  in  a  combination  of 
the  two.  To  undertake  either  of  these  is  beyond  the 
intent  and  scope  of  this  treatise.  How  far,  with  only 
necessary  reference  to  history,  either  within  or  beyond 
the  New  Testament,  the  enquiry  may  be  guided  and 
a  solution  reached,  following  the  lines  of  the  a  priori 
method  hitherto  adhered  to,  will  in  due  time  be  seen. 
The  key.  to  Christian  truth,  the  central  and  radiating 
principle  of  Theology,  ought  in  due  time  to  unlock 
these  difficult  questions.  If  they  have  not  been  so 
manifestly  unlocked  as  to  win  assent,  it  must  have 
been  that  the  wrong  key  has  been  applied,  or  the  true 
key  applied  unwisely.  Too  speedy  a  triumph  of  any 
theory  here  might  be  a  misfortune,  as  sapping  the 
faith  of  some  who  cannot  readily  desert  their  accus- 
tomed pathways.  God's  slow  methods  may  or  should 
be  ours  also,  and  we  cannot  outstrip  them. 

Now  we  have  to  consider  the  undisputed  marks  or 
tokens  of  the  Christian  Church, Baptism  and  the  Holy 
Supper,  and  to  consider  them  exhaustively,  and  as 
issuing  from  the  Theology  thus  far  explicated.  From 
this  enquiry  the  transition  will  be  more  easy,  natural, 
and  hopeful  to  the  enquiry,  Who  are  their  authorized 
administrators  and  guardians  ?     Yet  the  two  enquiries 


n6  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

must  run  together  for  a  little.  That  the  authorized 
administrators  and  keepers  of  the  Christian  Sacra- 
ments, if  there  be  any  such  at  all,  are  identical  with 
the  preachers  of  the  gospel,  cannot  be  maintained,  for 
all  Christians  are  such  by  native  right  and  privilege. 
To  make  known  the  love  of  Christ  to  his  fellow-men  is 
the  Christian's  inalienable  prerogative,  and  irrepressi- 
ble impulse,  and  this  is  preaching  the  gospel.  But 
the  preaching  of  Christ  may  come  to  a  hearer  with 
different  degrees  of  correctness,  clearness,  and  attract- 
iveness ;  and  there  may  be  good  reasons  to  provide 
that  it  may  be  thus  wise,  and  hence  more  authorita- 
tive, hence  to  limit  and  regulate  its  exercise,  but  no  one 
can  be  faulted  for  telling  to  his  human  brethren  what 
Christ  did,  though  he  may  be  faulted  for  claiming  any 
authority  beyond  himself.  Many  are  still  led  to  Christ 
by  such  preaching  the  gospel  as  this  ;  and  there  is 
little  doubt  that  in  the  early  days  many  were  led  to 
Christ  through  the  efforts  and  persuasion  of  the  ordi- 
nary disciples,  women  included,  as  well  as  by  the 
preaching  of  the  apostles  themselves.  We  shall  see 
that  this  universal  preaching,  for  economical  reasons 
wisely  limited  and  made  more  emphatic,  has  its  ana- 
logue and  expression  in  the  freedom  of  administration 
of  Christian  Baptism,  in  itself  equally  free,  open,  and 
general,  yet  for  similar  economical  reasons  wisely 
limited  in  administration,  and  made  more  emphatic. 
The  early  Christian  converts  were  baptized  after  St. 
Peter's  first  preaching,  in  such  numbers  as  to  make  it 
historically  probable  that  all  the  recognized  disciples 
were  efficient  in  administering  it,  and  that  St.  Peter 
had  abundant  aid,  or  probably  did  not,  as  St.  Paul 
usually  did  not,  baptize  any  himself. 


THE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  117 

And  we  shall  see  also  that  the  more  limited,  wiser, 
and  thorough  preaching  of  and  instruction  in  Chris- 
tian truth,  by  teachers  specially  fitted  and  appointed 
(which  speedily  came  to  be  the  fact),  has  its  analogue 
in  the  administration  of  the  other  Sacrament,  for  simi- 
lar reasons  limited  ; — the  one  practice  illustrating  and 
symbolizing  the  mere  initiation  into  the  Christian 
life,  the  signs  of  and  fitness  for  which  can  be  readily 
detected  by  any  one  whose  heart  has  been  touched 
by  the  knowledge  of  Christ's  work  ; — while  the  other 
symbolizes  the  whole  Christian  life  and  experience 
itself,  and  thus  that  the  utmost  of  knowledge  is  re- 
quired to  administer  it  wisely.  So  it  has  come  to  pass 
that  instinctively  the  Church  has  not  limited  the 
administration  of  Baptism,  or  declared  such  limitation 
essential,  while  it  has  uniformly,  strictly,  and  consist- 
ently limited  the  administration  of  the  Holy  Supper. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

CHRISTIAN     BAPTISM. 

In  selecting  some  visible  ordinance  to  be  the  token 
that  one  has  accepted  Christ,  and  become  member  of 
the  visible  society  ;  to  be  thus  a  vinculum  to  bind  the 
disciples  together,  not  only  in  the  regard  of  the  out- 
lying world,  but  in  their  own  regard,  since  a  perpetual 
reminder  to  themselves  of  their  own  brotherhood,  and 
its  obligations, — it  was,  of  course,  a  matter  of  indif- 
ference what  such  ordinance  or  token  should  be, 
except  so  far  as  it  might  have  ulterior  meaning, 
symbolic  significance,  and  hence  teaching  power.  But 
we  recognize  the  wisdom  of  selecting  a  rite  already 
associated  in  the  minds  of  those  likely  to  be  the  first 
disciples,  with  the  notion  of  initiation  or  consecration. 
Hence  the  selection  of  Baptism,  or  the  washing  of 
water,  the  great  purifying  element  of  nature,  and 
already  in  use  as  a  symbol. 

The  first  effort  of  the  holders  of  the  new  treasure 
was  to  make  known  the  love  of  Christ,  reaching  the 
culmination  of  sacrifice  in  his  death,  and  to  those  re- 
sponding to  this  appeal  was  prescribed,  as  authorized 
by  their  Lord  himself,  the  baptism  of  water.  Such 
submission  constitutes  the  new  election,  and  they  are 
thus  known  to  be  Christians.  That  they  should  value 
and  make  much  of  this  rite  was  to  be  expected.  Nor, 
human  nature  being  what  it  is,   prone  to  superstition 

118 


CHRISTIAN  BAPTISM.  1 19 

through  its  inherited  tendency,  was  it  unlikely  that 
they  might  make  of  it  something  other  than  what  it 
was  intended  to  be,  and  come  to  regard  it  as  having 
some  magical  virtue,  severing  it  thus  from  any  proper 
ethical  relation,  or  religious  attitude.  The  corrective 
to  this  tendency  lay  in  the  Christian  consciousness 
itself.  Just  in  proportion  as  the  ethical  requirement 
of  love,  or  perfect  moral  obedience  from  the  religious 
motive-spring,  was  kept  fresh,  vivid,  and  powerful,  was 
the  rite  likely  to  be  kept  in  its  proper  estimation  ;  and 
just  in  proportion  as  moral  effort  relaxed,  and  the  sac- 
rificial mind  was  weakened,  was  the  rite  likely  to  be 
separated  from  its  ethical  connection,  and  to  be  ex- 
alted in  their  estimation,  or,  more  correctly,  degraded 
into  a  mere  physical  and  arbitrary  token  of  profession, 
or  into  a  magical  charm.  These  dispositions  were  lia- 
ble to  increase  or  diminution  of  strength  by  the  rite 
being  from  the  first  associated  with  the  remission  of 
sins,  which  was  promised  to  those  baptized  in  faith,  in- 
somuch that  the  symbolic  language  was  used  from  the 
first,  "  Arise  and  be  baptized  and  wash  away  thy  sins," 
or  on  the  other  hand  with  the  need  of  sanctification. 
The  symbol  was  natural  and  comprehensible.  Just  as 
the  washing  of  water  cleanses  the  body,  the  Holy 
Spirit  in  his  mystical  activity  cleanses  the  essential 
soul,  the  root-centre  of  the  vital  processes,  insomuch 
that  the  disciple  may  in  consequence  be  regarded  as 
ideally  and  potentially  holy.  Thus  the  change  in  the 
human  structure  wrought  by  the  Holy  Spirit  might  be 
regarded  in  its  negative  efficacy  as  the  remission  of 
sins,  or  in  its  positive  efficacy  as  the  beginning  of 
sanctification,  processes  which,  we  have  seen,  imply 
and   condition  each   other,  or  rather  indeed  are  but 


120  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

positive  and  negative  aspects  of  the  one  process.  But 
if  the  former  and  negative  process  be  separated  in 
thought  from  the  latter,  and  thus  inadequately 
thought ;  if  the  remission  of  sins  be  thought  as  possi- 
ble to  proceed  independent  of  progressive  sanctifica- 
tion, and  come  to  be  thus  isolated  ;  if  the  abstract  re- 
lation between  God  and  man,  of  justification,  be  alone 
kept  in  mind,  and  it  be  forgotten  that  this  is  made 
actual  in  a  process,  it  is  not  unlikely  that  Christian 
Baptism  should  have  come  to  be  regarded  as  a  fin- 
ished something,  as  complete  in  itself,  be  looked  upon 
as  on  God's  part  an  act  of  power  effecting  changes 
entirely  severed  or  severable  from  the  conscious  pro- 
cess of  sanctification,  in  which  the  will  or  activity  must 
be  consentient,  and  which  in  itself  conditions  and  de- 
termines the  manner  and  the  speed  with  which  the 
consequences  of  sin  are  annulled.  Thus  Baptism  may 
in  thought  be  reduced  to  a  magical  rite,  and  have  no 
connection  whatever  with  the  Divine  Love,  which 
requires  free  responsive  love. 

We  can  easily  separate  in  thought  these  two  pro- 
cesses :  First,  the  intensification  of  the  loving 
spirit,  the  strengthening  of  all  benevolent  and  sacrifi- 
cial dispositions,  the  habit  of  true  obedience, — all 
which  is  sanctification,  and,  second,  the  passing 
away  of  the  suffering  which  has  come  from  foregone 
transgression  by  one's  self  or  others,  by  steps  and 
degrees,  and  meanwhile  its  transmutation  into  chas- 
tisement or  purification,  which  also  is  felt  to  be  vicari- 
ous. These  two  processes  carried  on  by  the  Holy 
Spirit,  abstractly  regarded,  are  our  justification  ;  con- 
cretely, our  regeneration  ;  though  our  conception  of  the 
latter  must  receive  synthetic  amplification,  and  be  re- 


CHRISTIAN  BAPTISM.  121 

garded  as  affecting  all  the  elements  of  human  nature. 
So  thought  it  has  its  beginning  or  germ,  and  its  termi- 
nation or  result,  the  perfected  creature.  All  these 
words  are  abstractions,  figurative  expressions,  or  analo- 
gies, only  by  a  synthetic  procedure  made  exhaustive 
definitions.  The  one  concrete,  dialectic  and  real  fact 
which  explains  them  all  is  the  harmonization  of  the 
elements  and  relations  of  human  nature,  and  hence  its 
reconstruction,  by  the  activity  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
This  fact,  variously  regarded,  comes  to  have  either  of 
the  above  names — justification,  remission,  sanctifica- 
tion,  regeneration,  glorification,  and  that  without  any 
contradiction  existing  between  them. 

The  connection  of  Baptism  with  this  fact  is,  of 
course,  arbitrary,  yet  none  the  less  real  and  important. 
For  the  economical  ends  already  spoken  of  some  initia- 
tory rite  is  needed,  and  that  it  may  have  intenser  obli- 
gation is  vindicated  the  farther  provision  that  it  has  by 
Christ's  appointment  superadded  to  it,  and  associated 
with  it,  the  activity  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  as  in  either  as- 
pect accomplishing  the  above  complex  fact.  It  is,  in 
some  sense,  the  symbol  of  any  one  of  the  above  rela- 
tions, and  strictly,  of  the  beginning  of  either  of  them 
regarded  as  a  process.  God,  of  course,  can  remit  sins 
upon  true  repentence,  can  sanctify,  and  can  regenerate 
independently  of  any  appointed  rite.  He  has  not 
said  that  He  will  not  do  so.  That  He  will  and  does 
do  so  flows  a  priori  from  the  very  Divine  character 
which  has  devised  the  Redemptive  process  itself. 
But  it  is  no  less  true  that,  since  the  intent  was  to 
found  a  kingdom  upon  earth,  He  has  promised  these 
results,  these  two  processes  which  are  within  the 
sphere  of  consciousness  and  which  condition  the  third 


122  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

process  which  lies  beneath  its  sphere,  to  submission  to 
the  prescribed  terms.  Thus  he  who  has  come  to  be- 
lieve in  and  to  love  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  feels  bound 
to  be  a  subject  in  this  visible  kingdom,  a  soldier  in 
this  army,  to  wear  its  badge,  and  use  its  weapons ; 
and  looks  for  the  promised  boon  only  to  acquiescence 
in  the  Divine  plan,  which  respects  others  than  himself. 
By  natural  generation,  which  is  a  mystical  activity 
entirely  eluding  our  understanding,  our  natural  human 
life  commences.  By  another  generation  equally  mys- 
tical a  new  human  life  may  be  started.  It  is  new, 
because,  though  the  concrete  material  be  the  same, 
the  idea,  or  schema,  is  new.  Either  is  a  true  vital  be- 
ginning of  a  process,  and  is  accomplished  by  the  Holy 
Spirit.  As  by  the  former  we  issue  from  the  old  hu- 
man stock,  by  the  latter  we  spring  out  of  the  new 
human  stock.  This  new  stock  is  Jesus  Christ,  no 
longer  untried  and  undeveloped  humanity,  but  hu- 
manity tried,  victorious,  developed,  and  perfected.  If 
the  essential  characteristic  of  organic  existence  be 
that  like  produces  like,  then  he  thus  springing  out  of 
the  new  humanity  must  be  essentially  like  it, — as  he, 
however  remotely  issued  from  the  first  human  pro- 
genitors, is  like  them.  The  individual  variations,  in 
either  case,  are  but  differing  combinations  of  the 
same  essential  elements.  In  either  case  the  spirit- 
ual will  and  mystical  energy  realizing  the  particu- 
lar idea,  which  is  but  a  variation  of  the  generic 
idea  (which  is  the  only  possible  definition  of  vitality), 
is  connected  with  a  physical  act  or  process  arbitrarily 
chosen  (if  indeed  it  be  not  at  length  found  to  spring 
out  of  some  recondite  necessity  which  will  secure  it 
from  arbitrariness).     This  physical  act  is  simply  the 


CHRISTIAN  BAPTISM.  123 

needed  symbol  to  make  known  what  it  veils  to  the 
created  and  limited  mind.  We  cannot  limit  the  pos- 
sibilities of  the  Divine  mind,  as  long  as  they  are 
thought  harmoniously  self-consistent  ;  and  it  is  noth- 
ing more  wonderful  that  the  central  spring  of  human 
life  should  undergo  change,  and  become  eternal  life 
by  contact  with  Christ  through  the  mediation  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  than  that  any  concrete  human  life  should 
be  started  from  physical  contact  through  similar  medi- 
ation. And  if  the  new  humanity  is  to  be  the  ideal 
one,  and  exalted  at  length  above  the  existing  human 
needs  and  infirmities,  it  seems  intrinsically  fitting  that 
the  symbolizing  rite  of  the  regeneration  thus  mysti- 
cally accomplished  should  be  as  simple  as  possible,  if 
only  apprehensible.  And  such  is  water  Baptism. 
The  purifying  process  and  the  pure  result  are  symbol- 
ized by  it.  The  motive  thereto  is  not,  as  in  the  other 
case,  a  physical  instinct,  or  merely  a  mental  resolve, 
overruled  by  God  for  his  own  purposes,  but  a  moral 
and  spiritual  one,  love  answering  love,  mind  propos- 
ing to  fulfil  the  behests  of  the  Divine  will.  It  is  then 
in  strict  analogy  with  natural  generation  that  God 
should  in  or  along  with  water  Baptism  accomplish  a 
new  generation  ;  that  it  should  be  the  symbol  and 
authorized  token  of  the  Divine  Justification,  the  be- 
ginning of  the  process  of  the  Remission  of  Sin,  and 
of  Sanctification. 

But  all  this  is  not  by  any  overpowering  physical  or 
spiritual  activity  or  influence,  and  irrespective  of  the 
human  will  as  to  its  moral  and  religious  relation. 
Rather  this  last  conditions  throughout  the  entire 
efficacy.  God  has  so  far  limited  his  own  sovereignty 
as  to  set  in   some  sense  aloof  from  himself  a  self- 


124  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

determining  being,  predestinating  him  indeed  to  per- 
fection, glory,  and  blessedness,  and  making  the  pro- 
foundest  trend  of  his  being  thitherward,  but  all  this 
while  still  respecting  the  freedom  of  the  creature. 
So  then  this  Divine  predestination  must  make  itself 
apparent  in  the  self-conscious  will,  by  whose  acquies- 
cence in  the  Divine  moral  and  religious  determination 
does  its  formal  freedom  begin  to  move  in  the  career 
which  is  to  issue  in  real  freedom  or  moral  necessity. 
That  this  right  moral  choice  may  be  from  the  most 
powerful  motive-spring,  and  need  no  after-supplement, 
the  good  news  of  Christ  is  preached,  and  moral  recog- 
nition of  the  Divine  law,  or  acquiescence  in  the  prin- 
ciple of  good,  takes  the  form  of  a  personal  tie,  and 
becomes  a  conscious  as  well  as  (possibly  the  only  one 
before)  an  unconscious  religious  relation.  That  this 
new  religious  attitude,  which  we  call  faith  in  Christ, 
contains  as  its  potential  result  regeneration,  is  indeed 
true,  and  hence  it  may  be  said  that  we  are  saved  by 
faith  only.  But  such  faith,  as  we  have  seen,  includes 
in  its  definition  both  wisdom  and  love,  and  must 
hence  propose  to  manifest  itself  only  by  acquiescence 
in  the  Divine  plan.  As  love  it  recognizes  its  fellow- 
ship with  its  brother  souls,  and  proposes  perfection 
and  blessedness  not  for  itself  alone,  but  for  all  such, 
and  for  the  entire  organism.  As  love,  nothing  less  and 
nothing  else  would  satisfy  it.  Hence  it  acquiesces  in 
the  requirement  to  confess  Christ  before  men  in 
Baptism,  and  to  look  to  it  as  the  assurance  of  the 
remission  of  sin,  of  the  sanctifying  influence  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  and  as  the  initiation  of  the  process  of  its 
reconstruction  and  glorification. 

All  these,  separable  as  processes  in  thought,  are  as 


CHRIS  TIA  N  BA  PTISM.  1 2  5 

we  have  said,  various  aspects  of  the  one  Divine  move- 
ment, and  condition  each  other.  When  through  weak- 
ness of  will  sins  of  infirmity  occur,  and  are  still  unre- 
pented  of,  the  process  of  extinguishing  the  conse- 
quences of  sin  is  suspended,  forgiveness  needs  to  be 
prayed  for,  and  to  be  had,  or  these  consequences 
threaten  to  return, — a  bar  is  put  to  the  sanctifying 
work  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  the  regenerative  process 
is  stationary.  Therefore  the  results  of  Christian 
Baptism  are  still  dependent  upon  faith,  upon  the 
movements  of  the  self-conscious  will,  and  the  high 
honor  is  given  to  the  creature  that  his  freedom  is 
forever  respected.  No  otherwise  could  true  sons  be 
made. 

From  all  this  it  is  apparent  how  it  may  come  to 
pass  that  the  same  concrete  process  may  be  in  the 
minds  of  different  thinkers,  yet  because  they  bestow 
these  names  differently,  they  may  seem  to  differ  in 
doctrine.  If  any  element  of  the  process  be  missing 
from  the  thought,  if  there  is  had  only  an  imperfect 
view  of  the  Divine  design,  if  this  is  not  thought  pro- 
foundly and  exhaustively,  then  the  actual  mentally 
received  doctrine  will  truly  differ,  even  though  there 
be  acquiescence  in  the  same  formulas.  In  the  latter 
case,  it  is  sure  sooner  or  later  to  be  scrutinized  and 
to  reveal  contradictions,  and  multiply  enigmas.  It  is 
believed  that  the  scheme  set  forth  in  the  verbiage 
above  will  reconcile  and  unify  views  apparently  but 
not  really  differing  ;  and  that  it  is  the  one  expressed 
or  implied  in  the  phraseology  of  the  New  Testament* 
But  it  may  still  be  borne  in  mind  that  it  is  entirely  in 
analogy  with  all  else  that  is  human,  that  words  gradu- 
ally change  their  significance,  and  in  that  case  can. 


126  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

with  difficulty  be  brought  back,  and  sometimes  never, 
to  the  original  one.  It  is  still,  however,  possible  to 
account  for  and  make  simple  much  of  the  phraseology 
of  the  New  Testament  that  looks  difficult  and  recon- 
dite, e,  g.;  In  Baptism  we  are  said  to  be  "  buried  with 
Christ  "  and  "  risen  with  him."  These  expressions 
have  not  only  an  obvious  figurative  meaning,  but  a 
literal  and  subtle  one.  If  in  Baptism  we  are  grafted 
into  the  new  stock,  and,  while  preserving  our  individu- 
ality, are  thenceforward  nourished  from  a  perennial 
source,  so  that  the  life  may  receive  a  new  name, 
"  eternal  life,"  and  overcome  and  eliminate  all  the  im- 
perfections and  perishable  elements  of  the  natural 
one,  then  this  concrete  fountain  of  life  was  both 
buried  and  risen.  It  is  now  indeed  risen  and  glori- 
fied, but  it  has  become  such  through  the  sacrifice  of  the 
appetencies  of  the  old  life  which  is  thus  buried.  Our 
own  old  life  goes  on  to  its  extinction  as  before  ;  yet 
the  new  life,  to  lay  hold  of  the  material  of  the  former, 
to  radiate  throughout  it,  and  transform  it.  And  thus 
Baptism,  regarded  in  its  intent  and  ideal  results,  is 
not  only  a  figure,  but  a  concrete  reproduction  of  the 
redemptive  process  itself.  The  life  struggle  and  the 
preservation  of  the  holy  will  are  indeed  necessary,  as 
they  were  in  the  career  of  Jesus  Christ  himself. 

The  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  also  promised  to  those 
submitting  to  Christian  Baptism,  as  something  later 
to  be  imparted.  But  since  the  Holy  Spirit  has  already 
been  the  energizing  principle  in  the  regeneration,  the 
initiation  of  the  restorative  process ;  since  also  the 
mystical  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  or  preventing 
grace,  has  conditioned  one's  acceptance  of  Christ,  and 
was  needed  to  make  faith  in  him  actual  ; — it  is  not  un- 


CHRISTIAN  BAPTISM.  127 

likely  that  this  further  promise  may  have  mainly  re- 
ferred to  the  charismata.  These  were  effects  of  the 
Holy  Spirit's  influence,  or  believed  to  be  such,  so  won- 
derful as  to  be  predominant  in  the  minds  of  the  early 
Christians,  and  likely  to  be  understood  by  them  to  be 
particularly  meant  when  reference  was  made  to  this 
promised  gift.  These  charismata  were  granted  for 
economical  reasons,  and  however  repudiated  by  many 
on  historic  grounds,  cannot  be  successfully  repudiated 
on  grounds  a  priori.  They  were  but  a  premonition  and 
foretaste  of  that  domination  of  nature  which  inheres 
in  faith  when  perfected.  When  the  will  as  the  expres- 
sion of  the  entire  nature  has  become  consentient  with 
the  Divine  will,  and  can  never  make  mistakes,  its  very 
impulses  are  at  one  with  the  Divine  mind,  and  can- 
not divert  the  Divine  force ;  so  that  it  is  literally  and 
profoundly  true  that  faith  in  its  perfection  can  remove 
mountains,  and  only  halts  and  is  inadequate  from  its 
imperfection,  which  is  a  moral  and  not  a  physical  or 
mental  deficiency.  But  when  consonant  with  the 
Divine  plans,  even  in  its  imperfection  it  may  have 
points  and  periods  of  coalescence  with  the  Divine  will, 
and  exhibit  the  ideal  relation  of  spirit  to  matter,  and 
mould  the  latter  for  such  ends  as  subserve  the  Divine 
purpose.  But  since  the  promise  was  not  only  to  the 
then  existing  believers,  but  to  all  who  should  believe 
through  them,  and  to  the  generations  yet  to  come,  we 
need  not  exclude  from  its  meaning  the  ordinary  sancti- 
fying efficacy  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  He  is  ever  ready 
to  unite  his  mystical  influence  with  the  external  and 
providential  influences  which  affect  the  character,  and 
are  efficacious  in  proportion  to  the  believer's  own 
spiritual  strivings,  and  come  in  response  to  Christian 


128  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

prayer ;  and  hence  this  mystical  influence  may  be 
regarded  as  especially  active  and  efficacious  at  such 
periods  as  confirmation  and  ordination,  when  the  sub- 
ject consecrates  himself  to  the  Christian  life,  or  to  the 
work  of  the  ministry.  The  particular  meaning  of 
these  crises  in  the  Christian  career  will  be  enquired 
into  hereafter.  % 

In  all  that  has  been  said  hitherto,  Baptism  has  been 
regarded  as  the  token  of  Christian  profession,  volun- 
tarily undergone  as  such,  in  view  of  the  promises 
made  to  it,  and  with  more  or  less  intelligence  of  its 
ulterior  intent  and  meaning, — i.  e.,  we  have  regarded 
only  Adult  Baptism.  Such  was  the  first  form  and 
practice  of  this  Christian  rite.  It  was  administered 
after  the  preachers  of  the  word  had  convinced  them- 
selves of  the  faith  and  sincerity  of  those  desiring  it. 
We  have  no  record  in  the  New  Testament  of  any 
Infant  Baptism.  That  is  a  very  doubtful  inference. 
But  the  custom  of  Infant  Baptism  sprang  up  in  the 
history  of  the  Christian  Church  spontaneously,  and 
without  any  discoverable  objection.  It  is  very  un- 
likely that  any  thing  contradicting  the  Christian  con- 
sciousness, or  impairing  the  integrity  of  Christian 
doctrine,  would  not  have  been  promptly  and  ener- 
getically objected  to.  All  history  shows  the  sensitive- 
ness of  the  Christian  mind  in  this  respect.  But  as  to 
this  practice  we  have  no  record  of  any  controversy. 
Therefore  the  practice  must  be  harmonized  with 
known  doctrine,  be  found  to  spring  from  the  naive 
Christian  consciousness,  and  be  capable  of  convincing 
justification.  In  later  times  it  has  indeed  been  amply 
objected  to  ;  and  about  it,  and  its  obligation  and  sig- 
nificance, have  the  controversies  about  Baptism  for  the 


CHRISTIAN  BAPTISM. 


129 


most  part  been  waged.  It  is  thus  needful,  in  and  for 
our  time,  that  the  philosophy  or  true  significance  of 
Baptism,  which  underlies  this  practice,  should  be 
elicited  and  brought  to  light.  It  is  apparent,  how- 
ever, that  this  cannot  be  done  till  the  full  significance 
of  the  ordinance  in  the  case  of  adult  believers,  is 
exhibited ;  and  the  two  questions  should  never  be 
mingled. 

Vol.  II. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

INFANT    BAPTISM. 

If  the  cardinal  idea  of  Christianity  be  the  revela- 
tion of  the  Divine  Love,  or  essential  character,  in  and 
through  Christ,  taking  as  a  necessity  from  the  contra- 
diction of  sin  the  form  of  sacrifice,  and  calling  out  re- 
sponsive love  on  the  part  of  the  creature,  which,  too, 
from  the  bewilderments  of  the  contradiction,  must 
take  the  form  of  sacrifice,  and  hence  be  denominated 
faith  ;  and  if  all  mental  and  physical  change  results 
from  such  sacrificial  act  and  ethical  triumph,  whether 
in  the  case  of  the  humanity  of  Christ  or  in  the  case 
of  the  Christian  believer,  and  cannot  be  thought  to 
proceed  independent  of  the  same  without  neglecting 
in  our  thought  the  absolute  law  of  the  universe,  and 
degrading  our  idea  of  the  First  Principle  by  exalting 
in  it  power  or  arbitrary  will  above  love  and  blessed- 
ness, and  likewise  degrading  our  idea  of  the  human 
being  by  making  the  physical  relation  the  prius  in 
our  thought  ; — then  it  would  seem,  at  first  reflection, 
that  there  is  no  place  in  the  process  of  human  recov- 
ery for  any  such  practice  as  Infant  Baptism,  except  as 
a  mere  human  mark  of  possible  future  discipleship, 
since  no  mental  or  physical  change  can  be  thought  as 
prior  to  the  establishment  of  the  right  ethical  or  reli- 
gious relation,  which  requires  the  self-conscious  will. 
Thus  in   formulating  a  doctrine  of  Infant   Baptism, 

130 


INF  A  NT  BA  PTISM.  1 3 1 

there  is  before  us  at  once  a  Scylla  and  a  Charybdis, 
and  a  narrow  sword-edge  along  which  to  tread.  It  is 
natural,  then,  that  human  thought  should  be  often 
slipping  off  this  edge  on  the  one  side  or  the  other. 
Such  baptism  of  infants  may  be  thought  (1)  as  in- 
itiating a  vital  process  to  be  carried  on  independent 
of  the  will,  or  any  ethical  relation  whatever ;  or  (2) 
as  affecting,  through  mystical  influence  accompanying 
it,  absolutely  and  irresistibly,  its  determinations  yet  to 
be  ;  or  (3)  as  mystically  affecting  the  same,  not  irre- 
sistibly, but  by  increasing  the  likelihood  of  the  right 
determination  of  the  will.  In  the  first  regard  it  be- 
comes a  purely  magical  rite,  and  implies  a  doctrine  of 
irresistible  decree  and  inevitable  perseverance,  in  which 
view,  again,  man's  prerogative  as  a  self-creating  being, 
as  such  alone  reaching  his  full  height,  is  denied  or 
held  of  no  account.  In  the  second  regard  is  implied 
a  mystical  influence  upon  the  will  -and  its  subsequent 
self-determination,  independent  of  any  environment 
or  culture,  which  again  lands  us  in  a  doctrine  of  abso- 
lute election,  or  a  doctrine  of  Providence  so  limited 
as  to  make  the  environment  or  education  a  matter  of 
indifference.  Moreover,  we  have  here  again  a  Psy- 
chology which  divorces  the  will  from  the  nature,  and 
is  not  the  expression  of  the  same.  This  last  becomes 
a  mere  passive  field  upon  which  the  securely  deter- 
mined will  triumphantly  works. 

All  empirical  evidence,  all  known  facts  contradict 
either  of  these  views.  Infants  baptized  and  neglected 
exhibit  no  difference  in  character  and  moral  behavior 
from  those  unbaptized,  such  character  being  evidently 
determined  by  the  same  influences  in  either  case.  As 
to  the  third  regard,  we  may  first  say,  that  if  the  ordi- 


132  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

nary  rule  be  that  preventing  grace,  the  mystical  ac- 
tivity of  the  Holy  Spirit,  correspondent  with,  and 
adapting  itself  to,  the  various  providential  environ- 
ment, is  the  condition  precedent  to  the  acceptance  of 
Christ,  and  thus  distinguishable  in  thought  from  any 
subsequent  influence  or  operation  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
in  and  after  adult  baptism,  then  in  the  case  of  the 
baptism  of  infants  there  may  be  thought  an  excep- 
tion to  such  rule,  and  a  special  activity  and  influence 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  antecedent  to  and  taking  the  place 
of  the  ordinary  influence,  and  rendering  more  likely 
the  subsequent  acceptance  of  Christ  in  faith  in  such  a 
case. 

The  law  of  parsimony  may  avail  us  here.  There  is 
no  need  in  our  thought  for  making  the  operation  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  in  Infant  Baptism  thus  exceptional  and 
a  retroversion  of  the  absolute  law  by  which  the  ethi- 
cal relation  precedes  and  conditions  all  other  relations 
whatever.  There  is  nothing  gained  by  it  to  harmo- 
nize our  thought,  but  it  only  raises  new  perplexities, 
and  throws  all  theology  into  confusion,  obliges  a  re- 
thinking of  the  whole  Divine  plan,  which  can  no 
more  be  successfully  harmonized.  Besides,  it  has  no 
support  in  the  New-Testament  Scriptures,  and  the 
Christian  instinct  has  been  against  it,  and  its  naive 
practice  virtually  denies  it ;  for  the  Church  has  always 
baptized  infants  with  respect  to  their  subsequent  cul- 
ture, has  taken  great  pains  to  make  such  culture  wise, 
complete,  and  efficacious,  and  has  regarded  the  ad- 
ministration of  baptism,  when  no  such  culture  was 
possible,  as  superstition. 

But  again,  if  we  have  limited  views  about  such  cul- 
ture, and  regard  it  as  the  training  of  the  self-conscious 


INFANT  BAPTISM.  133 

mind  and  will  only,  then  it  would  still  seem  that  bap- 
tism should  be  postponed  till  sufficient  mental  pro- 
gress were  made  to  make  moral  determinations  of  the 
will  possible,  if  not  till  we  have  some  manifestation  of 
religious  experience.  But  here  again  a  faulty  Psy- 
chology may  be  misleading,  and  conduct  to  mistake. 
If  the  will  be  thought  as  a  spiritual  element  super- 
added to  human  nature,  with  its  congeries  of  proclivi- 
ties inherited  or  acquired,  then  either  may  be  thought 
as  susceptible  of  culture  and  change  independent  of 
the  other.  But  if  the  will  be  the  entire  soul,  with  its 
spiritual  and  physical  relations,  expressing  itself  in  act 
either  upon  or  beyond  itself,  then  the  culture  of  the 
nature  is  the  culture  of  the  will,  and  vice  versa.  Then 
the  human  soul  may  express  itself  as  undeveloped 
will,  as  will  not  yet  self-conscious  as  such,  yet  still  will, 
and  thus  susceptible  of  culture.  If  the  human  being 
is  born  not  morally  indifferent,  but  already  with  de- 
terminations, then  such  determinations  may  continue 
through  the  environment  during  the  period  of  con- 
sciousness which  is  not  yet  self-consciousness,  but 
moving-  thereto,  and  in  such  self-consciousness  reach- 
ing  responsibility.  Such  determinations  then  may  be 
guided,  and  such  guidance  is  culture.  The  child  from 
birth  may  be  trained  to  such  actions  as  are  in  accord 
with  the  absolute  moral  end,  or  in  contrariety  thereto. 
These  actions  are  prudential  self-government,  and  are 
by  and  by  to  be  perceived  as  moral  self-government. 
Nay,  before  birth,  the  mother  is  not  irresponsible,  nor 
even  the  father,  as  all  medical  science  may  attest. 
The  formation  of  a  habit,  the  avoidance  of  a  forbid- 
den act,  are  already  manifestations  of  will.  Self-deter- 
mination exists  in  rudimental  form  ;  and  early  in  life, 


134  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

through  the  spiritual  relations  implicit  in  the  human 
structure,  may  be  seen  to  be  toto  ccelo  different  from 
the  merely  animal  determination.  By  degrees  it  gath- 
ers itself  into  full  and  explicit  self-consciousness.  And 
in  this  early  period  the  main  elements  of  the  future 
character  are  formed.  So  much,  and  nothing  less 
must  be  allowed  to  Determinism  ;  but  this  determi- 
nation works  not  through  blind  physical  media,  but 
through  the  direction  of  the  same  from  the  free  mo- 
tive-spring of  Love,  a  form  of  the  absolute  determi- 
nation, moral  necessity,  or  real  freedom. 

That  the  will  is  thus  the  focussing  of  the  entire 
nature,  or  essential  elements  of  the  human  being, 
and  is  thus  predetermined  variously  through  the 
principle  of  heredity,  and  is  capable  of  culture  from 
birth,  and  even  of  influence  in  the  ante-natal  period, 
— this  is  the  Psychology  which  underlies  the  Christian 
practice  of  Infant  Baptism.  That,  through  the 
Divine  Predestination,  the  profoundest,  innermost, 
and  essential  predispositions  of  the  human  being 
are  for  good,  for  moral  perfection  and  religious 
blessedness,  yet  that  the  contradiction  of  evil  variously 
showing  itself  has  entered  into  the  development  of 
humanity,  and  hence  of  the  individual,  which  contra- 
diction has  to  be  annulled,  which  predispositions  have 
to  be  strengthened  ; — from  the  recognition  of  this 
arises  that  the  Church  has  thought  her  children  to  re- 
quire  religious  care,  and  to  be  susceptible  of  educa- 
tion and  culture  from  their  birth.  And  if  through 
the  solicitous  care  of  parents  or  those  entrusted  with 
such  culture  the  environment  may  be  adapted,  and 
all  pains  taken  from  the  very  start  so  to  guide  the  na- 
ture as  that  the  will,  when  it  reaches  self-conscious- 


INFANT  BAPTISM.  135 

ness,  shall  show  itself  predominantly  on  the  right  side, 
and  if  the  mystical  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  be 
thought  as  correspondent  with  such  adapted  environ- 
ment, or  providential  conditions  ;  if  the  elements  of 
character,  thus  providentially  and  mystically  deter- 
mined, are  arranging  themselves,  and  drawn  up  step 
by  step  towards  the  proper  religious  relation  ;  if  this 
religious  relation  respects  the  conscious  will  in  the 
process  of  its  formation,  as  well  as  when  fully  formed, 
then  the  baptism  of  infants  may  be  and  should  be 
synchronous  with  the  commencement  of  their  culture. 
Thus  there  is  for  our  thought  no  severance  needful  of 
the  two.  Each  thought,  or  the  process  implied  therein, 
supplements,  requires,  and  conditions  the  other. 

That  the  system  of  thought  thus  drawn  out  was 
implicit  in  the  religious  consciousness  of  the  early 
Christians,  accounts  for,  and  alone  suffices  to  account 
for,  the  early,  naive,  and  uncontradicted  practice  of 
Infant  Baptism,  which  is  thus  legitimated  whether 
there  be  any  evidence  of  such  practice  found  in  the 
New-Testament  history  or  not.  And  if  so  it  renders 
it  somewhat  more  probable,  though  the  confirmation 
is  needless,  that  there  were  children  in  the  household 
of  the  jailor,  when  he  and  his  were  baptized. 

While  ordinary  experience  and  testimony  fail  to 
show  that  baptism  unaccompanied  by  or  unsupplement- 
ed  by  any  pains  or  culture  accomplishes  any  result  in 
the  character,  they  also  testify  that,  by  the  combina- 
tion of  the  two,  such  result  is  apparent.  They  con- 
firm the  thesis,  established  as  above  on  a  priori 
grounds,  that  the  moral  and  religious  character  can 
begin  its  right  formation  in  the  merest  infancy,  and 
that  the  fact  of  baptism  renders  it  more  likely,  when 


136  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

supplemented  by  culture,  that  when  the  period  of  re- 
ligious consciousness  arrives  the  child  will  cast  in  his 
lot  with  the  Christian  Church. 

The  very  principle  of  Christianity  requires  in 
thought  and  fact  that  no  one  can,  as  an  individual,  be 
developed  rightly  alone.  He  must  seek  to  develop 
others,  and  requires  the  love  of  others  to  be  himself 
developed.  It  is  implied  in  this  that  the  new  hu- 
manity is  an  ethical  organism,  no  one  member  of 
which  is  there  which  has  not  its  function  in  minister- 
ing to  the  perfection  of  all  the  rest.  No  individual 
soul  can  be  thought  to  be  so  large  and  rich  in  re- 
sources as  not  to  be  capable  of  being  amplified  and 
enriched  by  any  and  every  other.  Therefore  the 
loving  care  of  the  Christian  is  for  every  human 
brother  as  a  possible  Christian  brother,  and  for  the 
perfection  of  the  Christian  brother  in  particular.  From 
this  loving  anxiety  and  influence  the  infants  cannot 
be  excluded,  and  just  as  truly  as  the  Holy  Spirit  can 
carry  on  influence  within  ourselves  of  which  we  are 
unconscious,  just  so  truly  may  He  carry  on  influence 
within  the  immature  children.  That  a  true  religious 
life  and  Christian  experience  can  exist  in  children 
at  a  very  early  age  is  something  often  observed. 
Such  experience  can  be  no  sudden  acquirement,  but 
is  the  result  of  determinations  inherited  and  imparted. 
The  time  when,  under  any  conditions  of  culture,  such 
a  religious  consciousness  will  show  itself  may  greatly 
vary.  Sometimes  it  may  be  very  early,  sometimes 
later  on,  sometimes  very  late  in  life,  and  sometimes 
apparently  not  at  all.  In  the  last  case  we  have  one 
form  of  the  problem  of  moral  evil,  and  explanation 
cannot  be  had ;  but  in  the  other  cases,  although  we 
cannot  follow  and  describe  the  processes,  we  know 


INFANT  BAPTISM.  137 

that  the  result  is  due  to  the  sum  of  determining 
influences, — to  the  Divine  predestinating  love,  to  the 
love  of  ancestors  modifying  the  proclivities  of  their 
offspring,  and  to  the  love  of  parents  and  contempo- 
raneous brethren  guiding  the  culture.  And  thus  we 
are  at  all  points  dependent  upon  God  and  each  other, 
yet  none  the  less  self-creating  beings  under  such 
favorable  environment. 

When  the  period,  early  or  late,  arises  when  the 
religious  and  Christian  consciousness  shows  itself,  and 
the  religious  character  is  seen  to  exist  in  integrity 
though  still  in  degree  undeveloped,  such  a  period  is  a 
marked  one,  if  not  a  critical  one,  in  the  career  of  the 
individual  subject,  which  would  be  likely  to  attract  the 
attention  of  all  those  regarding  him  with  Christian 
solicitude.  It  would  mark  that  a  soul  had  been 
gained  for  Christ  in  such  security  that  its  defection 
could  be  regarded  as  a  mere  far-off  possibility.  Such 
an  one  is  ready  now  for  such  further  privileges  and 
aids  as  are  adapted  to  the  Christian  character  only 
when  essentially  formed,  and  which  are  to  carry  it  to 
its  ideal  height.  Thus  is  already  indicated  the  need 
and  use  of  the  other  rite,  with  its  profound  and  ample 
influence  and  significance,  the  Sacrament  of  the  Lord's 
Supper.  This  critical  and  emphatic  period  in  the 
Christian  career,  which  comes  thus  early  or  late, 
must,  as  we  have  said,  be  anxiously  marked  in  the 
mind  of  the  Christian  brotherhood,  and  it  is  fitting 
that  it  should  be  signalized  by  some  external  act  or  visi- 
ble ordinance.  Such  an  act  the  Apostles  devised  in  the 
rite  of  Confirmation.  These  are  the  ones  who,  in  the 
judgment  of  the  Church,  have  removed  every  bar  to 
the  full  influence  and  efficacy  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  who 
now  may  begin,   or  continue  more  completely,    the 


138  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

work  of  Sanctification,  may  come  with  his  seven-fold 
gifts,  i.  c,  accomplish  such  results  in  the  character  as 
constitute  the  normal  Christian  life.  To  determine 
whether  such  a  period  had  been  reached,  required  such 
wisdom  and  insight  that  the  Apostles  were  disposed 
to  entrust  it  to  no  inferior  judgment,  but  only  to  the 
wisest  and  those  having  plenary  responsibility.  Hence 
it  was  entrusted  only  to  the  highest  officers  of  the 
Church,  though  not  absolutely  and  necessarily  to  be 
decided  upon  only  by  them.  In  the  early  Christian 
days,  no  doubt  they  did  exercise  such  supervision  and 
judgment,  and  only  when  their  cares  became  larger 
did  they  commit  the  really  discriminating  decision  to 
others,  and  satisfy  themselves  simply  with  the  con- 
firmation of  the  same.  That  it  looks  more  like  a 
degradation  than  an  exaltation  of  their  high  office  to 
content  themselves  with  the  mere  formal  consent  to 
the  judgment  of  their  subordinates,  and  the  perform- 
ance of  an  outward  act  with  prayer  and  blessing  in- 
voked, may  be  true,  but  it  seems  to  have  come  about 
in  the  history  of  the  Christian  Church.  Nor  is  the 
rite  thereby  robbed  of  its  significance.  Since  to  the 
loving  care  and  prayers  of  parents  and  friends  and 
pastors  is  superadded  the  prayer  and  the  blessing  of 
the  ideally  responsible  one,  there  is  still  ample  secur- 
ity that  these  are  likely  to  be  recipients  of  the  mysti- 
cal influences,  and  further  gifts  which  are  to  follow  ; 
and  such  laying  on  of  hands  may  be  thought  to  mark 
the  condition  when  the  Holy  Spirit  may  act  without 
bar  or  hindrance  upon  the  Christian  neophyte,  as  well 
as  that  the  same  rite  in  the  early  days  was  seen  to 
mark  the  extraordinary  influence  which  showed  itself 
in  the  charismata. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE    ADMINISTRATION    OF    BAPTISM. 

That  as  soon  as  one  comes  to  be  a  Christian  be- 
liever and  the  sense  of  fellowship  to  exist,  this  should 
be  immediately  signalized  by  some  such  act  is  natural 
and  desirable.  That  the  surrounding  brethren,  by 
whose  ministrations  and  by  the  silent  teaching  of 
whose  example  the  neophyte  has  been  led  to  this 
step,  should  welcome  him  and  have  the  privilege  to 
mark  him  as  their  brother,  is  an  additional  reason  why 
there  should  be  no  delay  in  imparting  the  needed  to- 
ken. Thus  this  external  and  visible  bond  of  union, 
symbolizing  the  internal  coalescence  of  thought,  feel- 
ing, and  aim,  takes  the  form  of  a  positive  step  on  the 
one  side,  to  which  the  neophyte  is  consentient.  This 
needed  ministration  on  their  part,  thus  spontaneously 
rendered,  constitutes  and  describes  the  universal 
Christian  priesthood.  Such  universal  reciprocity  alone 
is  adequate  to  meet  the  requirements  of  the  ideal 
state.  That  each  brother  should  impart  to  each  other 
of  his  own  fulness,  and  have  the  same  in  return,  is  the 
very  definition  of  the  commonwealth  of  love,  which  is 
the  ideal  end  and  aim.  There  is  no  separate  priest- 
hood in  the  perfected  state,  no  hierarchy,  no  classifi- 
cation but  such  as  grows  out  of  the  idiosyncrasies  of 
structure  and  character.  Each  is  a  perfected  member 
of   the    new   humanity,   though    like   no   other,   and 

139 


HO  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

through  Christ  and  by  the  activity  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
linked  to  the  Godhead  itself.  All  this  is  true,  al- 
though in  the  progressive  and  militant  state  such  lim- 
ited priesthood  be  needful.  Thus  in  the  incipiency  of 
Christian  experience  the  ideal  end  is  foreshadowed  ; 
just  as  in  the  pattern  Church  of  Jerusalem  the  ulti- 
mate earthly  Church  was  foreshadowed.  The  Church 
is  founded  upon  and  starts  with  the  idea  of  universal 
mediation  or  priesthood,  needfully  thereafter  limited 
for  high  economical  purposes. 

It  would  seem,  then,  approaching  the  topic  in  this 
way,  that  the  administration  of  Christian  Baptism 
should  belong  to  all  Christians  as  such.  But  since, 
as  time  goes  on,  it  becomes  more  and  more  needful 
that  wisdom  and  discrimination  should  be  exercised  in 
deciding  who  are  worthy  to  receive  this  ordinance, 
and  if  a  ministry  of  selected  ones  is  required  at  all  for 
other  ends,  this  would  come  naturally  to  be  a  part  of 
their  function.  That  the  multitude  of  new  converts 
from  the  preaching  of  the  Apostle  Peter  on  the  day 
of  Pentecost  were  baptized  by  the  brethren  in  general 
without  any  minute  scrutiny  on  his  part,  or  even  on 
theirs,  is  likely.  Much  must  have  been  taken  for 
granted  as  to  the  sincerity  and  fitness  of  the  new 
believers.  But  as  time  went  on,  and  the  knowledge 
of  unworthy  recipients  came  to  pass,  more  and  more 
care  would  be  observed  till,  when  haste  was  not  indi- 
cated, the  administration  of  Baptism  should  come  to 
be  confined  to  the  ministry  proper,  though  no  ques- 
tion was  ever  made,  or  successfully  made,  as  to  the 
validity  of  its  administration,  on  emergency,  by  the 
lay  brethren.  Nor,  supposing  that  such  permission 
were  sometimes  unwisely  availed  of,  and  persons  bap- 


THE  ADMINISTRA  TION  OF  BAPTISM.       141 

tized  whom  the  ministry  at  the  time  would  have 
rejected,  was  there  any  need  to  repeat  the  rite.  The 
objective  mark  would  still  have  been  given,  and  there 
would  be  only  need  to  wait  for  the  proper  subjective 
condition  of  repentance  and  faith  to  be  reached  for  the 
full  promises  to  Christian  Baptism  to  be  fulfilled. 
Unless  the  rite  should  have  been  submitted  to  in 
malignant  hypocrisy,  it  need  only  be  concluded  that 
the  rudimental  faith,  even  though  the  exact  form  of 
Christian  faith  be  not  yet  fully  had,  is  met  by  the 
mystical  efficacy  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  starting  the 
progressive  accomplishment  of  the  purposes  indicated 
in,  and  promises  made  to,  such  baptism.  And  if  the 
rite  be  received  in  blasphemous  scorn,  such  baptism  is 
the  reverse  of  what  overtly  it  appears  to  be,  it  is  a  re- 
jection of  Christ  instead  of  an  acceptance  of  him,  and 
that  in  an  emphatic  form  which  adds  sin  to  sin.  And 
as  to  the  vital  relation,  it  is  but  a  graft  mechanically 
adjusted  to  the  vine,  which  withers  before  the  life  cur- 
rent can  reach  it.  Thus  the  refusal  of  God's  love  in 
Christ  is  at  the  same  time  a  refusal  of  the  regenera- 
ting current,  which  in  such  case  and  for  the  time 
being,  has  nothing  upon  which  it  can  work,  or  which 
it  can  gather  into  itself. 

That  these  high  promises  of  the  Divine  Love 
should  be  attached  to  any  rite  whatever  is  a  con- 
descension to  human  needs,  and  no  substitution  of 
any  thing  else  for  the  prescribed  ordinance  can  be 
made,  or  avail  itself  of  the  promise.  The  terms  of 
the  institution  must  be  met,  otherwise  its  purposes  are 
in  peril,  and  the  end  problematical.  There  can  then 
be,  at  human  caprice  or  discretion,  no  mutilation  of 
the  ordinance, — and  that  cannot  claim  to  be  Christian 


i42  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

Baptism,  which  is  not  the  application  of  water  to  the 
subject  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the 
Holy  Spirit,  with  intent  to  signalize  Christian  profes- 
sion, or  admit  to  Christian  privilege.  The  mode  of 
this  application  of  water  would  be  likely  to  vary  ac- 
cording as  one  or  another  aspect  of  its  symbolism  was 
prominent  in  the  habitual  thought.  The  washing  of 
the  entire  body  would  symbolize  the  remission  of 
sin.  The  pouring  of  the  same  element  upon  the 
head  would  symbolize  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
reaching  primarily  man's  spiritual  being,  of  which  the 
head  is  the  symbol.  Its  teaching  power  might  thus 
vary.  Nor  is  there  any  excuse  ever  for  changing 
essentially  the  words  prescribed  to  accompany  this 
application  of  water.  Christ  commanded  baptism  in 
the  name  of  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit,  not  as 
an  arbitrary  and  meaningless  formula,  but  because  the 
believer  was  to  be  admitted  now  to  a  fuller  knowledge 
of  the  Godhead,  and  to  be  the  subject  of  new  relations 
to  each  hypostasis  of  the  same.  A  new  filial  relation 
to  the  Eternal  Father  is  now  not  only  possible  but 
actual,  and  through  this  new  brotherhood  to  the  Son 
by  the  attainment  of  the  sacrificial  mind  a  new  light 
from  the  Divine  Logos  may  irradiate  the  twilight  of 
human  intelligence.  A  new  life  is  given  and  nour- 
ished by  the  Holy  Spirit  which  is  proof  against  all 
that  conquers  the  old  life.  The  Divine  Glory  may 
now  be  shared,  which  is  to  transmute  the  physical 
organism,  as  part  of  the  uriei?,  to  its  elemental  form, 
to  its  own  pure  effulgence.  This  wonderful  trans- 
formation of  the  creature  is  the  act  of  the  Father, 
through  the  Son,  and  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  each  of 
whom  has  thus  his  function,  necessary  to  each  other 


THE  ADMINISTRA  TION  OF  BAPTISM.       143 

function,  complementing  each  other,  and  seen  by  our 
intelligence  to  be  thus  inter-related. 

This  act  and  the  process  subsequent  may,  indeed, 
be  begun  and  carried  on,  irrespective  of  any  outward 
symbol  or  ordinance.  No  one  presumes  thus  to  limit 
the  Divine  activity,  and  to  think  he  has  exhausted  the 
Divine  mind.  But  the  belief  that  such  is  the  Divine 
intent  for  man  is  preserved  and  strengthened  by  such 
ordinance  ;  and  the  high  economical  uses  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church,  to  make  inroads  upon  the  kingdom  of 
evil,  and  to  build  up  itself  as  a  holy  temple,  are  there- 
by subserved. 

That  the  significance  of  this  rite  should  share  in 
the  propensities  of  human  perverseness  and  sometimes 
degenerate  into  superstition  is  inevitable,  human 
nature  being  what  it  is, — a  conflict,  and  not  wholly 
restored  at  once  by  the  Christian  profession.  But 
the  protection  against  such  degeneration,  or  its  cure, 
is  in  the  Christian  consciousness  itself,  whose  inner- 
most principle,  being  love,  sooner  or  later  in  its  healthy 
growth  sloughs  off  every  excrescence,  and  comes  to 
reject  any  distortion  of  this  or  any  other  Christian 
doctrine  which  implies  that  the  Supreme  One  is  an 
arbitrary  power,  or  unethical  force,  and  insists  that 
every  such  doctrine  must  be  reconciled  with  what  the 
human  heart  requires  him  to  be,  a  loving  Father. 
Any  error  in  the  doctrine  of  Baptism  will  be  found  to 
consist,  not  in  making  too  much  of  the  objective  rela- 
tion, but  by  making  too  little  of  it,  as  not  reaching  the 
entire  humanity, — or  by  making  too  little  of  the  sub- 
jective relation.  While  the  ethical  and  properly  re- 
ligious one  is  still  held  paramount,  and  to  condition 
every  other,  there  is  all  the  safeguard  that  can  be  had 


144  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

on  the  one  side.  And  (as  is  found  to  be  the  case  pos- 
sibly in  some  schemes)  to  ignore  the  objective  relation 
altogether  shows  that  the  transcendent  purposes  of 
God  for  human  kind  have  not  found  place  in  the 
thought,  or  have  been  superficially  thought. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE    LORD'S    SUPPER — THE  EUCHARISTIC  SACRIFICE   AND 

FEAST. 

We  have  said  that  the  essential  idea  of  Christianity 
or  the  absolute  religion  includes,  and  its  intent  re- 
quires, emancipation  from  all  prescriptions  whatever, 
since  in  the  perfect  state  human  spontaneity  can  be 
trusted,  divines  the  Divine  will,  and  finds  itself  ever  in 
accord  with  the  same,  and  hence  has  no  need  of  law. 
Any  power  over  the  universe  the  perfected  soul  may 
have  can  never  be  abused.  But  in  the  mixed  and  im- 
perfect state  of  militancy  and  transition  such  prescrip- 
tions are  required,  and  as  having  Divine  sanction 
are  obligatory.  The  disciples  of  Christ  were  indeed 
freed  from  the  Jewish  ceremonial, — yet  the  Lord 
Jesus,  while  enunciating  the  principle  of  love,  which  is 
the  fountain  and  idea  of  all  law,  and  which  gives 
validity  to  all  moral  prescriptions,  in  condescen- 
sion to  our  imperfect  knowledge,  broke  up  this  law 
into  maxims  adapted  to  the  existing  social  condition 
of  his  hearers,  giving  in  the  principle  of  love  (which 
also  He  amplifies  into  sacrifice)  the  key  to  guide  any 
change  in  the  letter  of  such  prescriptions  as  might  be 
required  in  any  altered  state  of  human  society.1 
These  prescriptions  thus  tested  by  the  principle  of 

1  This  truth  obliterates  at  once  the  whole  argument  sometimes  elaborately 
drawn  out,  objecting  that  Jesus'  moral  precepts  are  not  forever  obligatory,  e.  g. 
"  give  to  him  that  asketh  of  thee,"  etc. 
Vol.  II.  I45 


146  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

love,  which  may  oblige  some  alteration  in  their  form, 
are  obligatory  as  long  as  the  imperfection  of  the 
human  condition  exists,  although  they  are  reducible 
to  unity  ;  and  in  the  progressive  Christian  conscious- 
ness some  of  them  may  become  needless,  and  their 
number,  if  there  be  a  true  and  general  religious  ad- 
vance, should  diminish  rather  than  increase.  When 
complexity  and  minute  rules  in  applied  Christian 
morality  are  indicated  and  needful,  it  is  a  sign  of 
religious  retrogression  rather  than  of  advance. 

And  as  for  the  prescriptions  not  moral,  they  too,  in 
accordance  with  this  same  principle  of  spontaneity,  if 
to  be  of  perpetual  obligation,  should  be  as  few  as  pos- 
sible, and  such  only  as  must  be  needed  in  any  possible 
state  of  the  Christian  Church  attainable  during  the 
militant  period.  Hence,  we  have  seen,  we  know  of 
but  three  such  prescriptions,  the  rites  of  Baptism,  and 
the  Holy  Supper,  and  a  Ministry  for  the  growing  and 
militant  kingdom.  Jesus  made  Baptism  the  token  of 
initiation  after  the  confession  of  faith,  but  did  not 
prescribe  any  supplementary  rite  when  this  baptism 
should  have  been  administered  to  infants.  He  left 
that  to  his  chosen  Apostles,  as  well  as  any  other 
provision  that  should  be  needed  for  adaptation  to  ex- 
isting circumstances.  Therefore  all  such  might  be 
changed  upon  sufficient  need  by  sufficient  authority. 
But  the  ordinances  of  Baptism  and  the  Holy  Supper 
might  not  be  changed  or  dispensed  with,  and  his  Min- 
istry would  be  needed  to  the  last. 

To  be  adjusted  to  what  has  gone  before,  the  intent 
of  the  rite  of  the  Holy  Supper  can  be  nothing  less 
than  (1)  to  be  a  means  of  edification,  to  confirm, 
freshen,  and  amplify  Christian  knowledge,  to  arouse 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  147 

and  intensify  Christian  emotion  (all  this  belonging  to 
the  conscious  and  intelligible  processes)  ;  and  (2)  at 
the  same  time  to  have  mystical  efficacy  in  carrying  on 
the  process  of  regeneration  and  glorification. 

We  may  readily  conclude  that  Jesus,  before  the 
institution  of  the  Holy  Supper,  had  summed  up  his 
instructions  to  his  disciples,  so  far  as  it  was  possible 
for  them  to  receive  such  before  his  death.  These 
had  been  extended  throughout  his  whole  ministerial 
career,  and  were  completed  in  those  wonderful  dis- 
courses gathered  together  in  the  gospel  of  his  most 
intimate  disciple  and  friend.  They  probably  reached 
their  consummation  and  contained  their  quintessence 
in  the  profound  and  prophetic  prayer  to  the  Father 
recorded  in  the  seventeenth  chapter  of  the  fourth 
Gospel.  Therefore  the  key  to  any  teaching  intended 
in  this  new  rite  must  be  looked  for  in  his  previous  in- 
struction, all  of  which  may  possibly  enter  into  and  be 
required  for  the  full  understanding  of  what  was  to  be 
symbolized  and  taught  in  and  by  this  new  rite.  His 
active  ministry  we  may  thus  regard  as  ended,  so  far 
as  visible  relations  to  his  disciples  were  concerned. 
Henceforth  He  is  to  be  a  passive  victim  in  the  hands 
of  his  enemies.  Before  this  separation  He  instituted 
this  ordinance,  and  by  his  words  and  symbolic  action 
gave  them  a  pattern  of  what  they  should  do  thereaf- 
ter. Their  observation  of  the  rite  was  to  be  pros- 
pective, and  not  immediate.  This  we  learn  not  only 
from  the  fact  that  it  was  not  observed  until  after  his 
resurrection,  ascension,  and  the  day  of  Pentecost,  but 
it  is  obvious  from  the  very  nature  of  the  rite  itself. 
It  was  to  be  done  "  in  remembrance  of  me,"  not  by 
the  mere  memory  of  him  as  a  man  and  companion, 


1 48  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

but  in  remembrance  of  that  which  was  figured  by  the 
breaking  of  the  bread  and  the  outpouring  of  the  wine, 
i.  c,  of  his  death,  which  was  itself  the  symbol  of  and 
an  essential  element  of  his  spiritual  sacrifice.  Thus  the 
Apostle  Paul  regarded  this  ordinance  as  "  showing 
forth  the  Lord's  death  till  He  come."  Moreover  the 
ordinance  could  not  have  its  full  meaning  and  in- 
tended efficacy  as  the  sacrament  of  continued  regen- 
eration till  after  his  resurrection  and  ascension.  If  it 
was  to  be  a  means  of  nourishing  life  from  his  perfected 
humanity,  it  could  not  be  such  till  that  humanity 
was  perfected  and  glorified,  which  was  not  and  could 
not  be  till  the  sacrifice  of  the  cross,  which  alone 
did  and  could  bring  about  such  transcendent  results. 
Just  as,  in  the  similar  case,  Christian  baptism,  re- 
garded as  the  starting  of  the  new  life  by  the  imparta- 
tion  of  the  regenerating  principle,  could  not  be  and 
was  not  practised  till  the  whole  redemptive  and  re- 
generative process  was  completed  in  his  person.  But 
He  outlined  this  new  ordinance  for  them,  and  the 
essential  acts  seem  to  be, — the  consecration  of  the 
selected  elements  by  prayer,  the  symbolic  acts  of  break- 
ing the  bread  and  pouring  out  the  wine,  and  the  par- 
ticipation of  these  elements  so  consecrated  by  eating 
and  drinking  the  same.  But  all  this,  it  were  dishonor 
to  him  otherwise  to  think,  was  intended  to  be,  on  the 
part  of  those  to  whom  it  was  prescribed,  what  it  was 
in  his  own  outline,  something  more  than  a  mechanical 
act  ;  and  likewise,  and  as  alone  giving  value  to  these 
words  and  physical  gestures,  a  profoundly  ethical 
and  religious  one.  Therefore  it  must  ever  be  done  in 
the  same  sacrificial  mind  which  characterized  all  that 
He  did.   That  this  was  essential  in  the  administration 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  149 

of  the  rite,  and  for  the  reception  of  the  intended  bene- 
fit, has  been  overtly  or  covertly  maintained  in  all 
Eucharistic  doctrine  whatever. 

Hence  the  Lord's  Supper,  thus  observed,  is  an  act 
of  worship  in  the  highest  sense,  and  a  channel  of  life 
nourishment,  and  its  benefits  are  both  intelligible  and 
mystical.  It  is  the  sole  act  of  worship  which  Jesus 
prescribed,  unless  it  be  the  universal  human  worship 
of  prayer,  (which  implies  also  thanksgiving  and 
praise,)  which  needed  not  any  new  prescription,  but 
only  guidance,  and  whose  essential  basis  and  motive- 
spring  are  perennial  and  irrepressible,  being  nothing 
less  than  the  spiritual  gravitation  by  which  the  crea- 
ture seeks  the  source  whence  he  is  derived.  This  then 
is  the  one  and  unchangeable  act  of  Christian  worship, 
the  nucleus  around  which  any  thing  else  might  cluster 
which  should  be  found  meet  for  edification  or  benefit, 
which  Christian  feeling  would  spontaneously  make 
much  of  and  surround  with  all  its  offerings  of  the  best 
it  had  to  give.  As  summing  up  in  its  intent  and 
meaning  the  entire  truth  of  the  gospel,  in  its  synthesis 
of  religious,  ethical,  intellectual,  and  physical  relations, 
it  would  repay  any  amount  of  study,  and  be  appre- 
hended in  all  degrees  of  completeness  and  accuracy. 
And,  as  in  the  case  of  the  sister  rite  of  Baptism,  it  too 
would  be  likely  to  be  contorted'  by  human  supersti- 
tious propensity,  and  degraded  at  times  in  thought 
into  a  mere  magical  rite  ; — or  the  interdependence  of 
all  the  moments  and  relations  involved  would  be  not 
unlikely  to  be  lost  sight  of;  and  thus  the  whole  be  in- 
completely and  hence  inaccurately  apprehended  and 
taught.  This  would  be  the  case,  if  either  its  edifying 
or  its  mystical  efficacy  should  be  overlooked,  or  if  the 


150  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

interdependence  of  these  upon  each  other  should  be 
wrongly  thought.  Or,  the  curiosity  and  systematizing 
propensity  of  man  might,  for  alien  ends,  take  it  to 
pieces,  and  apportion  particular  benefits  to  particular 
parts  of  the  whole  prescription  ;  forgetting  that  we 
would  have  no  right  to  predicate  any  unique  and  uni- 
versal result  at  all  to  any  maimed  rite,  (for  this  would 
be  only  a  human  rite,  and  not  the  Lord's  own,)  to 
any  thing  short  of  the  entire  observance  according  to 
the  pattern  set  by  Jesus  himself.  The  corrective  to 
these  tendencies  can  be  had  only  by  exhibiting  to  the 
full  the  teaching  and  edifying  significance,  the  mysti- 
cal influence  and  its  intent,  and  the  connection  and 
dependence  of  these  upon  each  other.  In  the  correct 
appreciation  of  these  alone  can  its  full  meaning  and 
efficacy  as  an  act  of  worship  arid  a  channel  of  grace 
be  understood. 

That  which  first  impresses  us  when  we  regard  this 
ordinance  as  contained  and  explained  in  Jesus'  own 
acts  and  words,  and  in  those  of  his  Apostles,  is  that 
it  shows  forth  his  broken  body  and  his  blood  shed,  z.  e., 
his  death.  That  two  elements  should  be  chosen  and 
acted  upon  to  symbolize  this,  when  one  would  seem  at 
first  thought  to  be  sufficient,  is  by  no  means  an  arbi- 
trary and  needless  procedure,  but  is  itself  a  part  of  the 
entire  symbolization,  as  we  shall  presently  see.  But  if 
by  a  false  abstraction  this  death  be  regarded  as  a  mere 
physical  change,  if  sacrifice  be  regarded  as  a  mere  me- 
chanical act,  separated  from  its  ethical  or  religious 
spring  and  intent,  then  the  rite  will  be  correspondingly 
regarded  as  a  mere  mechanical  act,  and  formal  repeti- 
tion of  words,  and  as  having  magical  virtue,  i.  e.t  phy- 
sical efficacy  primarily  or  only.      If  such   ethical  and 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  151 

religious  meaning  be  retained  as  essential,  then  that 
only  is  a  true  offering  which  derives  from  such  spring. 
Otherwise  it  is  not  really  offered.  This  would  be  to 
deprive  the  ordinance  of  all  intrinsic  fitness,  since  any 
other  mechanical  act  might  have  been  arbitrarily  pre- 
scribed, to  have  the  same  magical  efficacy.  The  blood 
of  bulls  and  of  goats  might  be  made  to  put  away  the 
consequences  of  sins  as  well  as  the  blood  of  Jesus.  To 
be  an  offering,  in  the  ethical  and  religious  sense,  it 
must  be  made  in  the  sacrificial  mind,  in  the  mind  the 
same  in  kind  with  Jesus'  own  sacrificial  act,  though 
feebler  in  degree.  The  Lord's  death  can  only  then  be 
shown  forth  religiously  by  similar  spiritual  sacrifice, 
and  cannot  be  by  mechanical  acts  and  perfunctive 
words  only.  This  would  be  to  degrade  this  ordinance 
to  a  level  with  the  Jewish  rites.  Yet  still,  by  the 
terms  of  the  institution,  this  sacrificial  mind  must  be 
expressed  by  the  prescribed  actions  and  words  only, 
and  has  no  right  to  claim  the  promised  benefit  if  these 
are  neglected  or  infringed.  To  celebrate  the  Lord's 
Supper,  to  show  forth  the  Lord's  death,  is  then  a  sacri- 
ficial act,  in  the  depth  of  its  meaning, — a  renewed  act 
of  self-consecration,  which  implies  a  foregone  search- 
ing of  the  heart,  repentance  over  fault,  and  the  aban- 
donment of  whatever  must  be  left  for  religious  coa- 
lescence with  the  Father  of  spirits,  and  hence  an  act 
of  faith  ;— not  in  the  sense  of  having  a  correct  opinion 
about  the  meaning  and  virtue  of  the  sacrament,  but  in 
the  sense  of  love  responding  to  love,  whereby  the  ob- 
ject of  love  becomes  a  reality.  Thus  it  becomes  an 
act  of  worship,  not  in  the  sense  of  a  mere  external 
cultusy  (Christianity  ever  tends  to  elevate  above  that,) 
but  in- the  sense  of  a  spiritual  effort  to  rise  into  fellow- 


152  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

ship  with  the  Highest, — an  act  of  adoration  indeed, 
in  which  all  things  else  are  swept  out  of  the  con- 
sciousness, and  the  personal  tie  to  God  in  Christ  is 
purified  and  intensified.  The  Divine  Love  is  made 
vivid  by  being  symbolized  and  pressed  home  upon 
human  thought,  imagination,  and  emotion,  and  calls 
forth  a  corresponding  response. 

Thus  the  celebration  of  the  Holy  Supper  requires 
an  imitation  and  a  sharing  of  the  Lord's  own  sacrifice, 
though  still  far  short  of  it,  and  inadequate  to  loosen 
the  consequences  of  sin.  It  is  the  holding  up  of  one's 
self  to  the  Almighty  Father  for  religious  coalescence  ; 
and  the  clasp  is  tightened  in  proportion  as  the  offer- 
ing is  pure.  But  it  is  the  holding  up  of  one's  self, 
not  as  an  isolated  individual,  but  as  in  organic  union 
with  all  Christian  believers  and  with  Christ  himself. 
Hence  no  such  individual  consecration  is  inoperative 
upon  the  entire  organism.  Its  virtue  is  still  vicarious, 
and  it  becomes  thus  a  communion,  not  in  any  superfi- 
cial sense,  but  in  profound  vital  significance.  What 
is  the  function  and  relation  of  the  separated  elements 
in  this  sacrificial  offering  will  be  considered  hereafter. 

Thus  the  Holy  Supper  celebrated  is  primarily  a 
sacrificial  act,  whatever  else  it  may  be, — therefore  the 
highest  act  of  worship,  the  central  relation  of  which 
may  be  called  Adoration  ;  and  this  is  the  key  to  reach 
in  intelligence  whatever  other  meaning  and  efficacy  it 
may  have.  One  may  be  content,  indeed,  with  super- 
ficial meanings  of  these  words — Worship,  Adoration, 
— as  though  their  significance  were  met  by  mere  ges- 
tures and  outward  acts,  or  as  though  it  were  a  mere 
exercise  of  memory  and  imagination  bringing  Jesus' 
person,  career,  or  death  into  consciousness  more  or 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  153 

less  vivid  according  to  ability  for  representation,  but 
one  would  think  Christian  men  would  almost  disdain 
to  be  content  with  such  meanings  as  these.  Indeed, 
they  never  are,  but  they  connect  these  with  proper 
religious  acts  and  relations  by  an  arbitrary  arrange- 
ment and  not  by  a  necessary  and  absolute  law.  That 
it  is  this  latter  derives  from  the  whole  argument  of 
this  treatise,  which  subordinates  all  physical  and  men- 
tal change  to  the  ethical  and  religious  one.  Adora- 
tion, or  worship  in  the  purest  sense,  is  profoundly 
religious  ; — as  mechanical  or  outward  it  is  either  spu- 
rious or  only  symbolical.  We  think  it  as  the  isolation 
for  thought  of  the  pure  spiritual  element  of  worship, 
— the  bringing  of  itself  by  the  purified  and  forgiven 
soul,  the  soul  being  sanctified  and  regenerated,  into 
such  conscious  contact  and  coalescence  with  the  Di- 
vine heart,  as  is  possible  at  the  existing  point  of  its 
religious  history.  It  is  an  act  of  the  will,  therefore, 
i.  e.,  of  the  entire  humanity,  and  that  spontaneous, 
when  the  influences  which  drag  the  composite  being 
away  from  its  Father  and  Source  are  for  the  time 
being  arrested  and  suspended.  Hence  it  is  a  tempo- 
rary triumph  of  faith,  and  an  earnest  of  the  sight  into 
which  faith  is  by  and  by  to  lapse. 

That  Christ's  sacrifice,  to  which  we  respond  and 
which  we  follow,  is  set  forth  in  the  Holy  Supper 
under  two  forms  has  its  own  propriety  and  significance. 

Jesus'  discourses,  during  the  latter  part  of  his  life, 
are  interspersed  with  allusions  to  his  death,  which  He 
seemed  to  know  would  be  by  force  required  of  him, 
and  to  meet  which  He  also  knew  would  require  the 
utmost  exertion  of  spiritual  strength,  and  be,  thus,  the 


154  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

culmination  and  completion  of  his  sacrifice.  Its  effect 
as  a  moral  or  religious  force  upon  human  motives  is 
also  alluded  to.  "  And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up,  will  draw 
all  men  to  me."  His  death  is  both  directly  and  indi- 
rectly alluded  to,  and  sometimes  in  expressions  that 
seemed  strange  to  his  auditors,  and  which  would 
have  no  sufficient  explanation,  unless  He  had  fore- 
sight of  the  consequences  of  that  death  upon  his  dis- 
ciples, and  unless  He  had  in  mind  also  the  institution 
of  the  Holy  Supper  as  a  sacrament  of  that  death,  to 
commemorate  that  death,  and  to  be  the  medium  to 
accomplish  its  life-giving  results.  Otherwise  this  in- 
stitution must  be  regarded  as  a  sudden  afterthought, 
and  the  previous  discourses  as  independent,  and  be- 
longing to  another  plane.  That  life  in  the  fullest 
meaning  of  the  word,  Eternal  life,  which  can  never 
be  vanquished  but  which  vanquishes  every  thing,  was 
to  be  possible  and  actual  as  the  result  of  his  sacrifice, 
is  not  only  explicitly  said,  but  is  couched  also  in  the 
expressions  which  at  the  time  seemed  so  strange, — 
that  to  have  this  life  his  flesh  should  be  eaten,  and  his 
blood  drank, — thus  confining  the  life-giving  effect  of 
his  sacrificial  death  to  whatever  was  meant  by  these 
terms.  To  find  the  key  to  this  significance  we  have 
no  other  resort  than  to  the  expressions  used  at  the 
institution  of  the  Holy  Supper,  in  which  their  mean- 
ing is  amplified,  and  more  completely  determined  ; 
and  also  to  the  explanatory  after-utterances  of  his 
Apostles,  which  show  how  they  understood  them. 
We  learn  thus  that  the  "  flesh  "  to  be  eaten  was  the 
body  "  broken  "  or  "  given,"  and  that  the  "  blood  "  to 
be  drank  was  the  blood  to  be  "  shed."  Thus  these 
elements  of  the  human  structure  are  not  regarded  in 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  155 

their  material,  or  even  vital  aspect  simply,  but  as 
having  ethical,  z.  e.,  sacrificial  relations.  The  partici- 
pation of  the  flesh  and  blood  is  to  be  of  them  broken 
and  shed,  and  the  relation  indicated  is  not  a  physical, 
but  a  religious  one.  To  participate  of  these  requires 
then  that  one  shall  participate  of  the  sacrificial  spirit 
with  which  they  were  broken  and  shed.  It  was  not 
the  physical  vitally  healing  virtue  of  his  broken  body 
that  was  alluded  to,  though  that  might  be  as  result 
when  that  body  was  fully  glorified  ;  but  it  was  the 
might  of  the  sacrificial  love  that  was  to  be  responded 
to,  calling  forth  the  responsive  love, — the  inward  act 
of  worship  that  was  to  express  itself  in  this  prescribed 
way.  These  symbolic  acts  were  henceforth  to  be 
accomplished,  not  in  mere  remembrance  of  him  as  a 
companion,  friend,  or  teacher,  but  of  him  dying  for 
the  recovery  of  man.  This  remembrance  and  thought 
would  seem  to  be  expressed  alone  and  sufficiently  by 
the  figure  of  his  body  broken,  and  the  sharing  of  the 
benefits  of  such  breaking  or  giving.  But  He  super- 
adds another  figure,  and  speaks  of  his  death  as  the 
shedding  of  his  blood.  This  cannot  be  looked  upon 
as  simply  a  correspondence  and  acquiescence  in  the 
terms  and  methods  of  the  Jewish  sacrifices.  Rather 
they  took  their  prescribed  form,  not  from  any  absolute 
need,  but  because  they  were  prefigurations  of  the  only 
efficacious  blood-shedding  yet  to  be.  Yet  this  term 
expresses  more  clearly  than  the  term  of  the  broken 
body  that  his  death  was  to  be  by  violence,  and  brought 
about  by  human  malignity,  which  thought  must 
enhance  the  conception  of  his  loving  sacrifice,  and 
teaches  that  the  sacrificial  response  must  be  strong 
enough  to  submit  to  death  externally  inflicted,  if  need 


156  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

be.  But  besides,  as  the  bread  symbolizes  the  body, 
the  visible  and  intelligible  element  or  aspect  of  human 
existence,  the  wine  symbolizes  the  blood,  which  is  in- 
visible and  the  medium  of  the  vital  force  by  which  it 
operates  upon  the  passive  material, — symbolizes  thus 
the  mystical  element  or  aspect  of  the  concrete  exist- 
ence. Upon  this  the  Holy  Spirit,  ruling  the  vital 
processes,  mediately  works,  and  thus  the  regenera- 
tive process  is  by  one  link  nearer  connected  with  the 
loving  sacrifice  which  showed  itself  in  such  blood-out- 
pouring. Thus  the  one  element  connects  more  readily 
in  thought  with  the  material  aspect  of  human  ex- 
istence, that  which  is  to  undergo  glorification,  and  the 
other  element  with  its  spiritual  aspect ;  i.  e.,  with  its 
relation  to  God  as  spirit,  and  the  source  of  life. 

The  regenerative  process  is  incompletely  and 
therefore  incorrectly  thought,  if  it  be  regarded  as 
abstracting  and  affecting  solely  either  the  physical  or 
the  spiritual  element  of  the  complex  human  being. 
It  is  not  only  an  ethical  or  religious  change,  not 
merely  a  physical  change,  but  .both,  and  these  medi- 
ated by  a  conscious  or  mental  change.  It  affects  the 
entire  synthesis  which  constitutes  humanity,  just  as 
its  analogue  in  natural  generation  respects  such  entire 
synthesis.  Man  is  neither  body,  nor  soul,  nor  spirit, 
but  the  synthesis  of  the  three  ;  or,  if  the  phraseology  be 
preferred  as  more  accurate,  he  is  a  soul  not  undeter- 
mined, but  determined  through  relation  to  the  material 
universe,  the  Divine  Glory  obscured,  and  at  the  same 
time  through  relation  to  the  spirit  realm,  to  the  pure 
spiritual  Cxodhead.  Regeneration  as  such,  then,  must 
affect  man's  entire  being.  Even  though  such  use  of 
the    word  be   declined,   the  process  is  the  same  in 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  157 

thought,  otherwise  the  physical  and  spiritual  elements 
of  existence  are  thought  as  existing  apart,  and  as  hav- 
ing only  arbitrary  and  no  necessary  connection.  But 
as  the  disease  of  humanity  had  its  origin  in  an  ethical 
lapse,  whereby  the  mind  underwent  obscuration  and 
the  body  degradation,  so  the  recovery  must  primarily 
affect  him  ethically,  i.  c,  in  the  restoration  of  love  in 
such  form  and  under  such  conditions  that  it  may  be 
described  as  faith,  and  as  flowing  from  which  the  ob- 
scuring clouds  may  at  length  dissipate  from  the  mind, 
and  the  body  be  restored  to  such  life  as  is  worth  the 
name.  The  end  and  aim  of  the  Divine  scheme  is 
human  perfection,  which  includes  primarily  the  perfect 
love,  pure  and  strong,  whence  comes  bodily  glorifica- 
tion, and  mental  restoration  and  infinite  expansion. 
Such  was  the  pattern  shown  in  Christ's  own  history, 
whose  sacrifice  in  death  accomplished  his  glorification 
as  secure  (though  the  process  had  begun  before),  and 
his  mental  illumination  (though  his  mind  had  dwelt 
before  in  the  light  gradually  nearing  the  perfect  light). 
With  his  disciples,  too,  we  may  think  that  the  bodily 
glorification  is  not  something  reserved,  sudden,  and 
immediate,  but  a  process  carried  on  beneath  the  shows 
of  phenomenal  existence  ;  and  also  that  the  Christian 
disciple  is  approaching  continually  nearer  and  nearer 
to  the  central  principle  of  true  knowledge  ;  all  this 
provided  that  the  ethical  or  religious  relation  is  true, 
direct,  and  healthful,  that  Christ  is  loved  even  as  He 
loved. 

Therefore,  if  in  the  Holy  Supper  the  work  of 
Christ  is  symbolized,  it  is  in  its  entirety,  as  sacrificial 
and  as  life-giving,  as  one  affecting  the  entire  humanity  ; 
and  if  it  veils  the  result  of  that  work,  if  it  be  a  chan- 


158  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

nel  of  any  benefit  at  all,  it  must  be  a  channel  of  the 
entire  benefit,  of  that  which  is  mystical  as  well  as  of 
that  which  is  intelligible,  it  must  affect  humanity  in 
every  element  which  is  essential  to  it,  and  that  in  the 
order  revealed  in  the  absolute  law  of  all  concrete 
existence. 

That  human  life,  thus  essentially  complex  and  a 
system  of  relations  that  can  never  be  torn  apart, 
should  be  nourished  by  media,  as  well  as  initiated 
through  media,  in  either  case  the  energy  being  the 
only  known  force,  the  Holy  Spirit,  is  we  know  true 
in  natural  generation  and  growth  ;  and  if  there  is  to 
be  indeed  a  new  humanity,  and  the  entire  nature  har- 
monized in  its  immanent  and  transcendent  relations, 
and  thus  newly  created,  we  need  have  no  reluctance 
to  think  that  it  should  be  begun  and  nourished  by 
media,  and  have  a  visible  sacrament  of  its  birth,  and 
also  of  its  food. 

As  God  is  not  confined  to  his  own  prescriptions, 
unless  they  have  moral  necessity  immediately,  but 
gives  them  for  economical  ends  (which  thus  have 
moral  necessity  only  remotely  and  not  exhaustively), 
we  cannot  but  think  that  this  mystical  initiation  and 
process  of  nourishment  may  be  carried  on  and  these 
transcendent  results  attained  independent  of  any 
media;  but  since  the  kingdom  of  Christ  is  to  exist  on 
the  earth  and  win  its  way  among  the  children  of  men, 
and  if  its  own  subjects  are  to  be  urged  rapidly  tow- 
ards perfection,  not  only  for  their  own  sakes,  but  for 
other's  sakes,  and  that  the  Divine  plans  may  be  ac- 
complished, we  see  propriety  that  the  Lord's  Supper 
should  be  a  vehicle  of  conveying  such  nourishment, 
and  therefore  be  of  perpetual  obligation.     That  it 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  159 

should  sometimes  degenerate,  in  the  estimation  of 
men,  into  a  superstitious  rite  was  inevitable,  and  is 
itself  a  proof  of  the  depth  of  the  disorder  to  be  cured ; 
but  its  benefit  does  not  depend  upon  exhaustive  or 
even  true  opinions  about  it,  though  these  must  en- 
hance the  entire  benefit,  and  remove  hindrances  to 
the  unity  of  Christ's  kingdom,  and  help  to  hasten  the 
consummation.  Its  benefit  is  graduated  by  a  religious 
and  not  by  an  intellectual  scale,  except  as  these  imply 
each  other. 

That  which  is  accomplished  in  and  for  the  Christian 
believer,  in  the  celebration  of  the  sacrament  of  the 
Holy  Supper  in  such  complete  form  as  Jesus  pre- 
scribed, if  it  is  approached  in  the  proper  ethical  con- 
dition, i.  e.,  if  the  soul  is  unclogged  by  unrepented  sin 
and  reaches  towards  Christ  in  faith,  is  (1)  the  tighten- 
ing of  the  clasp  with  which  it  is  embraced  by  and 
embraces  him,  the  strengthening  of  the  religious  or 
personal  tie  ;  and  (2)  the  influx  of  life  and  vigor  into 
the  new  and  Christ-life  already  begun,  whereby  the 
entire  new  humanity  receives  new  nourishment, 
growth,  and  impetus, — the  vital  relation  to  Christ  is 
intensified  and  made  more  secure,  and  hence  through 
him  extends  to  every  other  Christian  believer  or 
member  of  him,  whereby  it  becomes  a  communion,  or 
a  common  participation  of  the  influences  which  are  to 
bring  about  the  ultimate  commonwealth  of  love  with 
its  correspondent  environment  of  the  glorified  body, 
and  the  renewed  uriai?.  Like  Christian  prayer,  the 
benefit  of  the  Holy  Supper  is  not  only  individual,  but 
vicarious,  and  extends  beyond  its  immediate  recipients. 
And  this  is  what  is  meant  when  it  is  sometimes  spoken 
of  as  the  extension  of  Christ's  own  sacrifice  ;  for  it  re- 


160  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

fers  every  thing  back  to  him,  and  nothing  to  the 
creature,  but  the  supply  of  the  sine  qua  noti,  the  need- 
ful ethical  condition. 

Of  these  results  we  are  measurably  conscious  of  the 
one,  and  entirely  unconscious  of  the  other,  as  we  are 
similarly  conscious  and  unconscious  of  the  two  pro- 
cesses carried  on  in  our  natural  human  life. 

With  these  results  in  mind  more  or  less,  the  cele- 
bration of  the  Eucharist  is  an  act  of  worship — a  reli- 
gious, therefore  a  sacrificial  act,  in  which  there  is  not 
only  a  discarding  of  the  appetencies  of  the  old  man, 
but  a  fresh  consecration  of  the  new  man.  God  and 
man  meet  knowingly,  as  well  as  in  manner  unknown, 
and  this  coalescence,  more  or  less  clearly  appre- 
hended, is  adoration.  This  self-consecration,  how- 
ever, is  in  the  spirit  of  sacrificial  love  ;  therefore  it  is 
not  of  one's  self  as  an  individual  merely,  but  of  one's 
self  as  included  in  the  organism  of  the  new  humanity. 
The  perfection  of  these,  one's  brethren,  is  needful  for 
the  perfection  of  the  individual  believer.  The  perfec- 
tion of  all  his  members  is  needful  for  the  perfection 
of  Christ's  own  humanity  regarded  as  the  head  and 
source  of  this  organism.  Not  until  it  is  perfected 
will  He  in  the  fullest  sense  be  "  subject  to  the 
Father  "  and  "  God  be  all  in  all."  The  Divine  Glory 
may  be  enhanced,  besides.  He  may  be  "  glorified  in 
them,"  and  not  only  the  bodies  of  the  saints  be  trans- 
figured, but  the  whole  xrfois  liberated,  and  (for  their 
subjective  regard,  at  least)  be  reduced  to  its  pure 
elements.  It  too  is  in  no  fixed  and  passive  state,  but 
subject  to  movements  which  we  cannot  yet  a  posteri- 
ori fully  interpret.  It  is  changing  and  moving  on  to 
a  state  which  will  be  correspondent  to  the  needs  of 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  161 

the  perfected  souls  who  are  to  use  it,  and  find  in  it 
the  material  for  their  own  varied  delight,  and  their 
own  creative  impulses.  If,  then,  self-consecration  be 
followed  out  to  its  full  meaning,  it  is  the  offering  to 
the  Almighty  Father,  for  his  own  acceptance,  of  the 
whole  universe,  now  in  process  of  redemption,  by 
those  who  are  charged  with  its  recovery.  Thus  the 
sacrament  of  the  Holy  Supper,  symbolizing  and  feebly 
imitating  the  one  perfect  and  alone  fully  liberating 
sacrifice  of  Christ,  is  many-sided  in  its  significance, 
intent,  and  results.  Some  of  these  last  are  negative 
and  involve  the  disappearance  of  the  old  deranging 
tendencies,  while  others  are  positive,  accomplishing 
growth,  progress,  and  increasing  security  for  the  per- 
manence of  the  entire  new  human  nature,  in  every 
element  of  its  complex  structure. 

Men  have  objected  to  calling  it  a  "  sacrifice  "  by  tak- 
ing for  granted  an  imperfect  or  inadequate  meaning 
of  the  word.  Such  untrue  meaning  has  come  to  pass 
from  failure  to  analyze  it  and  penetrate  to  the 
essential  idea  of  sacrifice,  by  isolating  its  external  and 
mechanical  aspect  from  its  ethical  one.  If  all  the 
elements  of  such  meaning  are  had  in  mind,  a  supersti- 
tious meaning  is  no  longer  possible,  nor  any  diminu- 
tion in  regard  of  the  supreme  worth  of  Christ's  sacri- 
fice, since  the  feebler  one  of  his  followers  is  his  own 
shown  forth  measurably  in  them.  Nor  is  the  shallow 
view  which  confines  itself  to  intelligible  results,  and 
forgets  that  life  is  a  mystical  process,  any  more  pos- 
sible. 

The  very  interesting  question  now  recurs,- — in  what 
estimation  should  we  hold  these  elements  of  bread 
and  wine  thus  set  apart  and  consecrated  ? 

Vol.  II. 


162  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

We  hold  it  as  axiomatic  that  any  special  or  unique 
benefit  or  result  promised  to  the  observance  of  this 
instituted  rite  cannot  be  claimed  except  by  meeting 
the  entire  terms  of  the  ordinance  as  prescribed  by 
Jesus  himself ;  hence  that  it  cannot  be  taken  to  pieces 
and  particular  results  apportioned  to  the  respective 
parts.  It  is  not  the  one  and  singular  act  of  sacrificial 
worship  commanded,  if  thus  mutilated.  If  the  prayers 
which  are  a  part  of  the  rite  are  thus  separated  from 
this  connection,  they  fall  into  the  plane  of  common 
prayers,  and  are  ruled  as  to  their  result  by  the  law 
governing  them.  An  effect  so  extraordinary,  involving 
the  innermost  secrets  of  life,  as  an  influx  of  eternal 
vigor  from  Christ's  perfected  and  glorified  humanity, 
cannot  be  claimed  as  resulting  from  any  thing  less  than 
the  fulfilment  of  the  entire  terms  of  the  prescription. 
All  the  essential  moments  of  such  prescription  have 
their  worth  solely  from  the  final  cause.  The  elements 
of  bread  and  wine  are  not  consecrated  except  to 
be  eaten  and  drank,  nor  are  they  truly  consecrated 
except  as  they  are  eaten  and  drank,  and  become 
elements  of  spiritual  strength  in  proportion  to  the 
depth  and  purity  of  the  sacrificial  mind  with  which 
they  are  received.  To  think  otherwise  is  again  to  ex- 
alt the  physical  above  the  religious,  and  to  undermine 
the  whole  theological  fabric  Any  possible  adoration, 
thought  out  of  relation  to  the  final  cause,  the  nourish- 
ment of  the  new  humanity,  will  be  found,  on  analysis, 
to  differ  no  whit  from  such  adoration  as  is  possible  in 
ordinary  prayer,  or  might  be  stimulated  by  the  pres- 
ence of  any  thing  stimulating  the  imagination.  Not 
that  this  last  may  not  be  of  worth,  but  it  falls  far  short 
of  the  idea  of  the  coalescence  of  God  and  man  through 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  163 

Christ,  possible  and  promised  in  the  Holy  Eucharist. 
These  mutilations  of  this  sacrament,  of  which  men 
have  been  so  fond,  have  not  elevated  but  rather  low- 
ered the  conception  of  it ;  and  on  careful  examina- 
tion it  will  be  found  that  the  results  of  this  seemingly 
high  view  belong  to  the  same  category  with  the  results 
which  alone  are  claimed  by  those  holding  the  lowest 
view  :  i.  e.,  they  belong  to  the  sphere  of  the  intelli- 
gible, and  exclude  that  of  the  mystical. 

The  unscriptural  word  "  presence  "  is  a  poor  and  in- 
sufficient one  to  indicate  the  profound  coalescence  of 
Christ  with  his  own,  effected  through  these  media. 
The  word  has  various  meanings,  either  distinct,  or 
expressing  gradation  in  degree.  It  is  too  indefinite 
to  be  very  useful.  That  Jesus  or  his  Apostles  never 
used  it  in  reference  to  the  Holy  Supper  might 
instruct  us  to  formulate  our  doctrine  without  its  use  : 
yet  if  the  word  is  adhered  to,  any  meaning  of  it 
whatever  is  harmless,  if  the  safeguards  above  detailed 
are  kept  in  mind. 

The  formula  of  words,  used  by  Jesus,  whose  mean- 
ing bears  the  nearest  approach  to  that  usually  given 
to  the  word  pi'esence,  is  his  saying  :  "  Wherever  two 
or  three  are  met  together  in  my  name,  there  am  I  in 
the  midst  of  them."  But  as  these  words  were  spoken 
during  the  period  of  the  humiliation,  they  cannot  have 
exactly  the  same  meaning  they  might  have  had  they 
been  spoken  after  his  glorification.  They  are  in  the 
present  tense,  and,  if  having  phenomenal  sense,  such 
sense  must  be  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  the 
phenomenal  world.  His  body  was  not  yet  emanci- 
pated from  spatial  and  physical  limitations.  Indeed, 
those  whom  he  was  addressing  were  met  together  in 


1 64  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

his  name,  though  not  yet  in  the  profoundest  sense  of 
these  words,  and  there  he  was  in  their  midst.  But  we 
cannot  suppose  that  he  was  intending  to  utter  such  a 
truism  as  this.  Neither  is  it  likely  that  he  was  allud- 
ing to  such  omnipresence  as  might  be  predicable  of 
him  in  his  Divine  nature,  as  when  he  spoke  of  "  the 
Son  of  Man  "  who  was  "  in  heaven"  It  would  not 
require  the  meeting  of  the  "  two  or  three  "  to  accom- 
plish this.  The  stress  is  evidently  laid  upon  these 
words,  and  in  this  meeting  is  to  be  found  the  key  to 
their  meaning.  The  allusion  is  both  immediate  and 
anticipatory,  to  the  fact  that  by  such  outward  action, 
with  intent  to  worship,  they  were  fulfilling  one  pur- 
pose of  his  coming.  They  were  illustrating  the  law 
of  love,  which  he  had  revealed  in  a  concrete  example 
by  his  sacrificial  life,  and  hence  were  in  a  condition 
for  a  fuller  coalescence  with  the  Divine  Principle  itself 
through  his  mediation.  They  could  then  or  thereafter 
only  love  each  other  rightly,  if  they  first  loved  him. 
He  was  even  then  the  channel  (though  not  yet  fully 
apprehended  as  such)  through  which  their  love  pas- 
sing became  purified  and  reached  each  other,  and 
would  reach  the  world  in  full  strength  and  effect. 
This  was  measurably  true  when  he  spoke  the  words, 
and  would  be  more  completely  true  when  his  perfect 
sacrifice  and  its -results  should  have  taken  place,  and 
become  known.  Thus  the  union  of  his  disciples  with 
him,  and  through  him  with  each  other,  is  primarily  an 
ethical  one,  lapsing  into  a  religious  one ;  and  only 
through  the  last  can  it  have  ontoloofical  truth.  Thus 
the  words  he  uses  are  not  to  be  taken  in  a  superficial 
and  phenomenal  sense,  but  in  one  more  profound 
and  real,  and  as  including  mystical  relations. 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  165 

And  it  is  not  unlikely  (since  there  was  manifest 
unity  in  the  plan  of  his  kingdom,  and  his  words  and 
deeds  are  bound  together,  and  constitute  a  philosophic 
system,  more  rigid  and  impregnable  than  any  ever 
excogitated  by  the  human  intellect,  which  fact  causes 
the  trust  in  his  words  to  which  all  the  sons  of  men 
who  have  known  of  him  fly  for  partial  or  completer 
refuge  and  rest)  that  when  He  spoke  these  words  there 
was  anticipation  of  those  future  gatherings  in  his 
name,  which  should  occur  after  his  death,  when  his 
disciples  should  meet  for  common  worship,  and 
especially  after  the  manner  which  He  should  prescribe 
in  the  appointment  of  the  ordinance  of  the  Holy  Sup- 
per. In  this  the  significance  of  these  words  above 
given  would  be  fully  brought  out.  The  commtinion 
earlier  indicated  now  has  become  purer  and  more 
complete.  The  restraints  of  imperfect  knowledge, 
weak  faith,  and  insufficient  feeling  are  now  removed. 
He  who  could  once  deny  his  Master  could  not  do  so 
again.  There  is  a  sharing  of  the  sacrificial  mind,  not 
held  off  and  contemplated  as  a  possibility  and  doubt- 
fully attractive,  but  the  taking  it  to  one's  self  as  the 
supreme  law  and  governing  principle.  There  is,  in 
the  religious  relation  now  possible,  an  approach  to 
his  own  coalescence  with  his  Father.  There  is  a  par- 
ticipation, as  their  religious  growth  proceeds,  in  the 
regenerative  results  of  his  sacrifice.  Thus  comes  to 
pass  a  commtinion  so  profound  and  extensive,  so  real, 
that  the  word  "  presence  "  derived  from  the  phenome- 
nal world  becomes  but  a  feeble  word  to  express  it, 
and  a  possibly  misleading  one,  since  calling  away  the 
mind  to  busy  itself  in  merely  physical  or  metaphysical 
enquiries.     This  word  would  be  wisely  used  only  in 


166  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

the  phenomenal  sense,  in  which  case  it  would  have 
several  grades  of  meaning ;  or  in  the  sense  of  the 
Divine  omnipresence,  which  means  that  the  Divine 
consciousness  and  life  pervade  every  thing,  or  that 
all  things  are  present  in  it ;  a  truth  that  may  be  set 
forth  in  a  thousand  forms  ;  of  which  presence  there 
are  no  degrees,  but  it  is  perfect  everywhere. 

The  Lord's  Supper  (only  such  in  its  entirety)  be- 
comes, then,  a  medium,  or  channel  of  life,  and  as  such 
requires  the  mediation  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  But  these 
elements  of  bread  and  wine  thus  set  apart  have 
secondary  or  relative  holiness,  as  visible  means  tow- 
ards a  mystical  result.  When  eaten  and  drank  in  the 
sacrificial  spirit  they  are  media,  to  which  God  connects 
nourishment  and  growth,  as  He  connects  the  susten- 
tation  and  strengthening  of  our  natural  life  with  the 
reception  of  our  common  food.  But  as  this  last,  in 
the  disordered  state  of  the  human  body,  may  some- 
times not  nourish,  but  only  poison,  so  the  reception 
of  these  consecrated  elements,  if  the  receiver  be 
organically  disordered  by  unrepented  sin,  however 
they  may  feed  the  mortal  frame,  can  convey  no 
strength  to  the  "  eternal  life,"  but  may  enfeeble  it,  or 
figuratively  poison  it,  in  extreme  cases,  by  adding  the 
sin  of  irreverence  or  blasphemy,  thus  aggravating  the 
disease.  But  when  the  receiver  is  thus  for  the  time 
purified  they  are  the  means  of  the  normal  nourish- 
ment. To  be  sure  it  is  by  Divine  appointment  only 
that  our  common  food  nourishes.  So  is  the  universe 
constituted  that  the  life  principle  operates  through  it, 
flows  into  the  subject  when  the  normal  relation  is 
established,  whereby  the  food  is  assimilated  to  the 
organism,  and  sustains  its  life.      But  this  organism, 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  167 

through  ethical  defect,  cannot  hold  this  life,  and 
at  length  what  has  been  food  becomes  no  longer  food, 
and  does  not  and  cannot  maintain  it  in  organic  ex- 
istence. Science  may  alter  the  phraseology  of  all  this, 
but  the  truth  intended  will  remain  the  same.  But  the 
new  organism,  invisibly  articulating  beneath  the  mask 
of  the  old,  can  maintain  itself  against  the  disinte- 
grating and  destroying  forces  The  name  of  its  life  is 
*  eternal  life."  Life  indeed  ;  and  (as  all  dependent 
life  has  its  sacrament,  and  man  is  only  independent 
ethically)  the  life  current  which  perennially  sustains 
and  invigorates  it  must  needs  have  its  visible  medium 
(for  the  Regeneration  is  not  the  substitution  of  the 
new  for  the  old,  but  the  transmutation  of  the  old  into 
the  new),  through  which  the  Divine  Life  may  operate. 
Thus  the  bread  and  wine  received  in  the  Lord's 
Supper,  while  still  remaining  food  for  the  natural  life, 
become  other  than  such  food.  As  the  new  body  may 
be  formed  beneath  the  mask  of  the  old,  so  the  life 
which  is  eternal  life  may  operate  through  the  conceal- 
ment of  ordinary  food.  As  such  sacrament  of  food 
for  the  new  humanity  growing  and  developing,  the 
symbols  which  teach  it,  or  the  media  which  convey  it, 
obtain  secondary  or  relative  sanctity,  and  thence  may 
be  desecrated  by  irreverence,  a  fault  for  which  St. 
Paul  rebuked  the  Corinthian  disciples. 

Besides, — through  the  new  life  principle  lodged  in 
it,  the  htigiz  itself  is  undergoing  progressive  glorifica- 
tion, correspondent  to  the  progress  of  the  ethical 
principle,  and  these  elements  are  part  of  this  nriai?, — 
elements  too  which  have  become  possible  media,  and 
when  received  actual  media,  between  Christ  and  them 
to  whom  the  new  life  is  first  and  immediately  extend- 


1 68  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

ed,  viz.  :  the  body  of  Christian  believers.  Thus  these 
elements,  effecting  as  media  the  new  and  eternal 
relation,  are  the  connecting  link  between  this  body  of 
believers  and  the  outlying  universe,  and  share  in  its 
glorification.  Such  thought  may  influence  one's  re- 
gard of  them,  as  veiling  mystical  processes  and  results, 
and  even  the  superstitious  regard  of  them  be  but  the 
perversion  of  a  healthy  instinct.  But,  as  was  said  be- 
fore, in  our  regard  of  them  the  sacrificial  act  which 
avails  of  them  as  symbols  and  media,  and  the  acquies- 
cent mind  which  reverently  receives  them  must  not 
be  lost  sight  of.  They  must  not  be  thought  to  have 
independent  virtue  separated  from  these  relations  ; 
though,  since  elevated  to  such  high  function,  the 
Christian  instinctive  feeling  will  pay  them  honor. 

Hence  it  follows  that,  in  the  complex  sacrificial  act 
which  offers  the  subject  in  organic  union  with  Christ 
and  his  brethren, — which  is  vicarious,  and  reaches  in  its 
efficacy  the  whole  organism  (for  no  Christian  can  be- 
come more  holy  or  more  sinful  without  enhancing  or 
retarding  the  perfection  of  the  whole  body),  these  ele- 
ments too  have  their  share,  as  connecting  the  whole 
universe  with  the  body  of  Christian  believers,  for  this 
cannot  be  left  behind,  as  though  it  were  not  needed  in 
the  consummation.' 

Thus,  when  the  profound  significance  of  the  Holy 
Eucharist  is  brought  out  and  rightly  thought,  we  are 
guarded  from  any  superstitious  estimation  on  the  one 
hand,  and  on  the  other  from  any  shallow,  imperfect, 
and  merely  ethical  view.  But  the  tendency  to  these 
extremes  is  perennial,  and  has  been  amply  illustrated 
in  the  history  of  Christianity. 

That  the  celebration  of  the  Holy  Supper  should  be 


THE  LORD'S  SUPPER.  169 

confined  to  the  ministry,  the  appointed  guardians  of 
the  purity  of  the  Church,  and  conservators  of  the  in- 
tegrity of  Christian  truth,  (if  we  find  we  have  grounds 
to  regard  them  such,)  would  seem  to  be  obvious.  If 
their  wisdom  is  needed  to  discover  who  are  fitted 
for  the  initiatory  rite,  it  would  seem  to  be  still  more 
needed  to  find  those  who  approach  the  Lord's  table 
in  fitting  mood,  not  to  desecrate  it,  but  to  receive  its 
benefit.  As  having  then  committed  to  them  the  ob- 
servance, the  task  of  consecration  and  administration, 
we  find  constituted  a  priestly  relation  similar,  though 
on  a  higher  plane  and  for  finer  results,  to  the  uni- 
versal priestly  relation  between  all  Christian  believers 
as  such.  But  this  priestly  relation  is  not  a  mere  per- 
functory one,  as  for  the  most  part  under  the  Jewish 
dispensation,  but  an  ethical  and  religious  one. 
Hence  it  is  not  rightly  or  wisely  characterized  as 
sacerdotal,  which  word  is  associated  with  a  far  lower 
and  coarser  relation.  No  one  need  be  afraid  of  this 
word  "priestly  "  as  meaning  simply  lower  or  higher  kind 
of  human  mediation  :  and  those  who  reject  the  word 
will  be  found  still  to  have  retained  what  it  means. 
Here,  however,  is  indicated  a  careful  inquiry  into  the 
constitution  and  function  of  the  Christian  ministry, 
which  topic  we  shall  very  soon  approach.  But  before 
the  doctrine  of  the  Eucharist  can  be  dismissed,  there 
is  needed  a  dissertation  upon  the  function  and  efficacy 
of  Christian  Prayer,  since  this,  though  pervading  all 
religious  acts,  and  all  Christian  experience,  is,  in  the 
case  of  the  Eucharist,  the  mode  of  consecration. 
And  this  will  carry  us,  before  we  can  part  with  it, 
into  depths  as  profound  as  any  in  which  thought  can 
move. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

CHRISTIAN  PRAYER. 

If  the  First  Principle  of  the  universe,  the  central 
spring  of  its  movement,  be  thought  of  as  impersonal, 
hence  unconscious,  such  a  thing  as  Prayer  is  unjustifi- 
able and  absurd.  As  a  practice,  however,  it  cannot 
be  said  to  be  unlikely  or  impossible  ;  for  when  in  pain 
or  terror  man  may  make  a  conscious  or  unconscious 
appeal  to  the  mystical  force  which  starts  and  rules  the 
motions  of  the  outer  world,  as  though  his  appeal 
might  be  known  and  be  of  possible  effect.  This  he 
may  do  in  spite  of  his  thought,  and  upon  the  impulse 
of  his  feeling.  This  shows  that  feeling  is  prior  to  and 
deeper  than  thought,  and  becomes  thought  when 
spirit  light  pervades  its  darkness,  when  the  category 
is  supplied  which  brings  order  and  method  into  it. 
This  involuntary  and  rudimental  supplication  may  be 
.regarded  as  the  debris  of  past  superstitions,  and  be 
explained  after  the  manner  of  Herbert  Spencer  and 
others,  or  it  may  be  thought  as  man's  profoundest 
instinct,  and  as  showing  that,  in  spite  of  his  mental 
denials,  the  obscure  consciousness  that  all  force  has  a 
personal  origin  is  implicit  in  all  his  ratiocination.  By 
the  rude  and  undeveloped  man  all  force  is  figured  as 
personal  effort,  and  hence  his  early  superstitions,  his 
invocations  to  the  intelligences  which  are  supposed  to 
reside  within  and  to  govern  the  powers  of  nature. 

170 


CHRISTIAN  PRA  YER.  1 7 1 

This  is  Religion,  in  its  broadest  definition  :  the 
state  of  consciousness  derived  from  the  conviction, 
the  suspicion,  or  the  instinctive  belief  that  personality 
underlies  all  manifestations  of  power,  and  the  en- 
deavor to  come  into  some  sort  of  communication  with 
the  same.  Thus  at  the  centre  of  all  polytheistic 
superstition  the  idea  is  existent,  though  caricatured, 
distorted,  broken  into  centres  of  power  more  or  less 
independent ;  and  it  remains  for  thinking  to  reduce 
these  powers  to  unity,  and  thus  to  purify  and  simplify 
the  idea.  Such  thinking  was  done  by  the  philoso- 
phers of  old,  and  they,  even  in  the  acquiescence  in 
or  adoption  of  the  prevalent  worship,  may  have  had 
in  their  minds  the  idea  in  its  purity,  and  regarded 
these  named  divinities  but  as  modes  or  manifesta- 
tions of  the  One  Intelligent  Power. 

If,  however,  man's  naive  instincts  can  be  thus  cor- 
rected by  thinking,  by  philosophy,  they  can  (if  the 
force  in  the  universe  has  a  personal  origin  and  thus  is 
guided  by  intelligence,  possesses  foresight,  and  has 
probable  benevolence,  thus  has  within  itself  unity  and 
harmony)  be  protected  measurably  from  aberrance 
at  the  start ;  or  be  at  any  time  confirmed  or  corrected 
by  intelligible  action  from  the  same  personal  source. 
Such  particular  action  we  may  call  revelation,  involv- 
ing providential  arrangements  operating  externally, 
and  the  correspondent  mystical  influence  upon  the 
subjective  apprehension.  If  such  revelation  be  indeed 
from  the  creative  Source,  its  results  must  be  identical 
with  those  attained  by  correct  and  exhaustive  think- 
ing, may  aid  and  beckon  on  the  latter  ;  as  the  latter, 
too,  may  and  must  test  the  former,  and  insist  upon  its 
right  and  ability  to  determine  whether  the  alleged 


172  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

revelation  be  such  indeed.  Thus  we  may  think  that 
for  providential  ends  certain  individuals,  families, 
races  of  mankind  have  been  protected  and  aided  :  and 
the  pure  and  true  idea  of  the  First  Principle  (so  far  as 
it  went),  and  man's  relation  thereto,  given  and  estab- 
lished at  the  start.  And  we  may  also  see  it  to  be 
possible  in  such  case,  that  this  correct  idea  with  its 
relation  may  undergo  distortion  or  obscuration  from 
human  source,  and  thus  be  degraded  by  degrees,  as 
before  it  by  degrees  had  been  purified  and  exalted. 

Prayer,  then,  being  the  endeavor  of  the  personal 
subject  to  come  into  mystical  coalescence  with  the 
personal  object,  will  be  true  in  proportion  as  the  idea 
of  such  person  is  true  or  complete.  If  such  Divine 
Person  be  thought  as  mere  arbitrary  will,  having  no 
essential,  unchanging,  and  necessary  nature,  the  idea 
can  inspire  only  terror,  and  superstitious  observances 
become  inevitable.  If  He  be  thought  as  weakly 
benevolent,  and  having  in  himself  no  moral  distinc- 
tions, hence  as  devoid  of  any  such  attribute  as  Justice, 
and  that  his  indulgence  or  interference  can  be  pur- 
chased by  gifts,  we  still  have  superstition,  though  in 
somewhat  higher  form.  The  Supreme  One  is  here 
regarded  as  having  character,  but  this  character  is  but 
the  objectification  of  man's  own  in  all  its  weakness. 
These  two  notions  of  the  Supreme  lie,  one  or  the 
other,  beneath  all  idolatry,  which  thus  conceives  the 
Power  falsely,  as  arbitrary,  or  cruel,  or  indifferent,  or 
weakly  benevolent,  and  orders  its  worship  in  accord- 
ance with  this  conception.  The  corrective  to  this  ten- 
dency is  reached  by  human  thinking  when  it  discovers 
that  the  moral  distinction  within  us  is  necessary  and 
eternal  (thus  bringing  to  clear  light  the  moral  instinct 


CHRIS  TIA  N  PR  A  YER.  1 73 

that  has  been  overlaid  and  obscured),  and  that  physi- 
cal results  follow  the  observance  or  the  neglect  of  the 
moral  law.  Thus  the  principle  of  Justice  comes  to  be 
thought  as  an  element  of  the  Divine  idea  ;  or  a  correc- 
tive having  the  same  result  may  be  supplied  by  revela- 
tion,by  the  giving  of  edicts  with  rewards  or  punishments 
promised  to  observance  or  violation.  Thus  prayer 
comes  to  be  still  further  purified  and  elevated,  when 
the  Source  of  power  is  identified  with  the  Source  of  the 
moral  law ;  and  in  the  complex  idea  of  the  Supreme 
One  the  notion  of  severity  is  contained  as  well  as  the 
notion  of  beneficence.  But  if  this  same  principle  of 
Justice  be  thought  as  supreme  over  every  other  predi- 
cation of  the  Divine  Person,  as  absolute,  and  ruling 
over  the  manifestations  of  the  Divine  beneficence  by 
an  alien  and  metaphysical  necessity,  and  not  as  the 
attitude  of  the  Divine  Love  itself  towards  its  own 
congener  or  its  opposite,  and  therefore  as  a  form  of 
freedom  or  moral  necessity, — prayer  to  the  Supreme 
One  so  thought  still  thinks  falsely  the  Ruler  of  the 
universe,  and  must  still  approach  him  with  misgivings 
and  with  fear  and  not  in  love.  Beyond  such  conception 
it  is  questionable  whether  human  thinking,  unguided 
and  unhelped  would  ever  have  carried  the  general 
human  mind.  For  the  a  posteriori  evidence  is  so 
pressing  and  cumulative  of  the  Divine  severity,  that 
no  a  priori  thinking  could  have  emancipated  more 
than  the  philosophic  few,  and  not  even  them  perma- 
nently. Man  is  still  inwardly  repelled  from  God  by 
the  sense  of  his  own  unworthiness,  however  he  may 
endeavor  to  approach  him.  "  Depart  from  me,  for  I 
am  a  sinful  man,  O  Lord,"  said  St.  Peter,  not  yet 
knowing  that  this  repulsion  was  the  true  condition  for 


174  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

a  real  advance,  and  revealed  the  strength  of  the  in- 
most attraction,  clamoring  that  what  made  this  repul- 
sion should  be  removed.  This  moral  shrinking  from 
God  shows  that  not  yet  has  the  Divine  Love  been 
made  clear  to  human  thought,  and  strong  for  the 
human  heart.  The  struggle  of  faith  exists  indeed,  but 
it  is  painful  and  despairing.  The  heart  sinks  and  craves 
the  outstretched  hand  to  be  raised  and  made  cheerful 
and  glad.  Man  approaches  and  shrinks  from  God 
alternately.  The  Divine  Love  is  not  seen  nor  felt  so 
securely  as  to  free  the  fetters  of  his  own  love.  The 
special  Divine  protection,  shown  in  the  superabun- 
dance of  temporal  rewards  and  punishments  promised 
and  bestowed  upon  religious  obedience  or  disobedi- 
ence, may  carry  him  a  step  farther  towards  the  true 
and  full  idea,  and  the  normal  religious  relation,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  Hebrew  people  and  chosen  individuals 
of  the  same  ;  and  supernatural  influence  may  have 
carried  these  still  farther,  in  whose  case  the  prophetic 
visions  may  have  illumined  still  more  the  Divine  idea, 
so  that  it  might  be  intuited  as  Love  ;  and  thus  we 
might  find  the  religious  life  and  experience  more 
nearly  perfect.  From  such  source  too  might  come 
forms  of  expression  which  need  not  be  discarded,  and 
prayers  which  Christians  can  use. 

It  is  not,  however,  till  the  Divine  Love  takes  for 
mankind  the  sacrificial  form,  and  till  it  is  not  only 
thought  to  be  such,  but  seen  and  felt  to  be  such  ;  till 
it  appeals  to  human  sense,  imagination,  and  convic- 
tion ;  till  it  is  seen  to  meet  and  transcend  our  highest 
conception  of  active  Love,  and  that  without  dropping 
off  its  attribute  of  Justice, — it  is  not  till  God  manifests 
himself  in  Jesus  Christ,  that  the  idea  of  the    First 


CHRIS  TIA  N  PR  A  YER.  1 75 

Principle  becomes  perfect  and  pure,  that  the  personal 
relation  or  bond  becomes  normal  and  strong,  and 
that  prayer  reaches  its  perfection. 

Christian  Prayer  is  more  and  higher  than  all  other 
prayer,  because  it  relates  the  subject  to  God  in  his 
essential  idea, — and  that  is,  a  Unity  breaking  into 
Trinity,  thus  satisfying  the  rational  requirements  of 
the  human  mind,  and  through  the  Incarnation  of 
the  Eternal  Son  and  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  meeting 
the  utmost  requirements  of  the  human  heart.  It 
superadds  something  more  to  all  in  human  prayer  that 
went  before,  and  that  might  legitimately  be  retained. 
It  allows  itself  to  long  for  relief  from  pain,  and  for  en- 
joyment, for  health  and  prosperity  and  peace, — to 
supplicate  for  temporal  blessings, — but  it  acknowl- 
edges the  wisdom  of  Divine  Providence  in  apportion- 
ing these  to  human  subjective  requirements  ;  it  ac- 
knowledges the  Divine  Justice,  and  submits  to  suf- 
fering, yet  turns  it  into  means  of  purification.  It 
betakes  itself  to  self-denying  zeal,  and  the  suffering 
needed  therefor,  because  it  knows  and  feels  it  to  be 
vicarious.  It  goes  to  its  Eternal  Father  through  the 
mediation  of  its  Divine-human  brother,  in  unfettered 
filial  spirit,  and  acknowledges  the  mystery  beneath 
the  shows  of  phenomenal  existence  by  supplicating  the 
grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  We  have  personified  it 
thus,  as  completely  possessing  the  human  subject,  and 
representing  the  personal  relation  solely,  and  in  its 
purity  and  intensity,  and  therefore  descriptive  of  the 
profoundest  fact  and  relation  possible  for  any  created 
existence. 

Christian  Prayer  may  be  absolutely  and  perfectly 
"  in  faith,"  or  imperfectly  and  provisionally  such.     It 


176  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

is  perfectly  in  faith  when  what  it  supplicates  is  known 
to  be  in  absolute  accordance  with  the  Divine  will,  as 
when  it  asks  for  aid  to  resist  temptation,  or  to  be 
strengthened  in  the  loving  spirit.  In  such  supplication 
its  maxim  is  that  God's  will  and  its  own  are  identical. 
It  is  in  faith  still,  but  imperfectly,  when  its  maxim  is 
"  Let  God's  will  be  mine."  Here  its  own  will  (repre- 
senting the  entire  self,  and  not  the  transitory  long- 
ing) is  known  to  be  not  in  secure  accordance  with 
the  Divine  will,  and  it  craves  the  needed  light  to 
discover  whether  or  how  far  it  is  such,  and  the  mysti- 
cal influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  that  it  may  be  strong 
enough  to  be  such.  Thus  it  asks  for  resignation  to 
the  dispensations  of  Divine  Providence,  for  cheerful- 
ness and  joy  in  its  self-denials,  for  light  and  guidance 
and  support  in  its  zealous  undertakings.  It  is  only 
provisionally  in  faith  when  it  asks  that  its  own  will 
may  be  God's  will,  that  its  irrepressible  longings  be  in 
accordance  with  the  Divine  plan.  There  is  implied  in 
such  prayer  a  possibility  that  the  Divine  will  and  the 
Divine  treatment  may  be  changed  in  consequence  of 
its  asking.  To  such  supplication,  while  it  remains  in 
doubt,  it  ever  appends  the  supplement,  "  But  not 
my  will  but  thine  be  done."  Still  it  is  not  discouraged 
but  rather  encouraged  to  make  such  request,  even 
though  in  doubt  whether  the  response  will  be  in 
accordance  with  its  own  longings,  and  in  resignation 
to  its  being  answered  in  some  other  way.  It  will  not 
be  denied  its  privilege,  and  there  is  no  forbidding  of 
this  privilege,  to  lay  its  own  heart  open  to  the  Divine 
heart,  to  feel  that  there  is  sympathy  for  its  wants  and 
longings,  intelligence  of  its  finer  needs,  and  com- 
passion for  its  infirmity.     God  is  not  all  that  the  mind 


CHRISTIAN  PRA  YER.  177 

thinks  and  the  heart  craves  unless  this  be.  It  may  be 
that  its  own  importunity  and  urgency  may  have  such 
effect  upon  its  own  subjective  condition  as  to  bring 
the  Divine  will  and  its  own  into  accord,  and  accom- 
plish the  very  reply  that  it  desires.  '  No  repulse,  no 
theory  shall  forbid  my  heart  from  displaying  itself  to 
the  Divine  heart,  and  telling  him  what  He  knows 
before,'  is  the  very  deepest  element  of  its  self-con- 
sciousness. The  religious  relation  is  just  as  true  and 
trustworthy  as  the  physical  one.  '  I  will  not  let  thee 
go  unless  thou  bless  me,  in  thy  own  way,  if  not  in 
mine,'  is  still  the  utterance  of  faith. 

But,  knowing  the  diffusiveness  of  the  Divine  Love, 
the  Christian's  own  love  is  similar.  If  it  responds  to 
and  reflects  the  Divine  love,  its  love  is  for  all  that 
God  loves,  for  all  that  is  worthy  of  loving,  and  in 
proportion  as  it  is  worthy  of  being  loved.  Hence  his 
prayer  becomes  intercession,  and  his  prayer  for  him- 
self is  directly  or  indirectly  for  his  brethren.  His 
prayers  are  for  the  new  organism  in  Christ  Jesus,  for 
the  household  of  faith,  and  therefore  he  cannot  if  he 
would,  recognizing  this  unity,  exclude  the  departed  ones 
from  this  intercession.  "  They,  without  us,  cannot 
be  made  perfect."  When  Christian  prayer  becomes 
other  than  individualistic,  it  cannot  stop  short  of  the 
whole  commonwealth  of  love,  on  earth  and  in  Para- 
dise, yet  needing  its  completion. 

As  in  the  case  of  the  Christian  Sacraments  them- 
selves, Christian  Prayer  may  degenerate  into  a  mere 
superstitious  observance,  when  it  is  thought  to  have 
virtue  from  its  mere  perfunctory  "  repetitions,"  or 
when  it  is  regarded  as  having  magical  virtue  indepen- 
dent of  all  ethical  condition  or  relation,  when  its  idea  is 

Vol.  11. 


178  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

thus  religiously  false.  In  such  case  it  is  prone  to  break 
into  a  multiplicity  of  formal  observances  and  mechani- 
cal acts  (not  that  these  cannot  be  rescued  and  made 
of  worth  and  have  their  use),  beneath  all  which  is  an 
untrue  or  disturbed  conception  of  the  Divine  Prin- 
ciple,— all  which  contains  the  essential  notion  of 
idolatry,  the  worshipping  the  force  of  the  universe 
under  a  false  idea.  The  corrective  to  such  tendency 
is,  as  before  in  the  case  of  the  sacraments,  to  be 
found  only  in  a  healthy  Christian  consciousness,  in  a 
consistent  theology,  in  short, — for  which  again  the 
watchful  guardianship  and  the  special  culture  and 
experience  of  a  selected  ministry  are  needed.  As  a 
class  the  prayers  of  such  a  ministry,  if  not  devouter 
and  more  loving  than  the  prayers  of  other  classes,  are 
at  least  wiser  and  more  intelligent  ;  though  even  here, 
alas,  if  an  erroneous  philosophy  or  an  incoherent 
theology  be  in  the  mind,  the  abnormality  of  such 
practices  in  prayer  will  be  more  fixed  and  frozen, 
and  be  more  difficult  of  correction  than  in  any  other 
case. 

But  we  have  yet  to  enquire  into  the  method  and 
manner  of  the  Divine  answer  to  prayer  ;  and  particu- 
larly as  to  the  meaning  and  efficacy  of  such  prayer  as 
accompanies  the  Christian  prescriptions,  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  ordinances  of  Baptism  and  the  Lord's 
Supper,  or  of  the  apostolic  ordinance  of  the  laying 
on  of  hands  in  admitting  to  the  Christian  ministry. 
In  all  other  rites,  beyond  controversy,  Christian  pray- 
ers and  their  results  are  the  same  in  kind,  and  are 
ruled  by  the  same  law  as  all  Christian  Prayer  what- 
ever. They  only  differ  in  their  object-matter,  and  the 
response  is  always  the  external  or  providential  over- 


CHRIS  TIA  N  PR  A  YER.  1 79 

ruling,  and  the  correspondent  influence  of  the  Holy- 
Spirit,  or  this  last  alone,  when  the  former  is  not 
required. 

To  pray  at  all  implies  the  belief,  in  variant  degrees, 
that  God  can  and  will  respond  favorably  to  such 
prayer.  But  in  this  is  implied  a  philosophy  of  the 
universe,  and  that  its  physical  movement  and  history 
are  subordinate  to  and  adapted  to  moral  and  spiritual 
requirements  ;  that  its  actual  or  possible  physical 
change  is  not  an  independent  sphere  by  itself,  and 
having  only  physical  meaning.  That  it  is  more  is  the 
main  contention  of  philosophy,  which  is  content  with 
induction  only  from  the  entire  and  not  from  partial 
material.  This  contends  that  the  physical  universe 
displays  intelligence,  sprang  from  intelligence,  and  is 
made  for  intelligence  ;  that  it  would  have  no  worthy 
meaning,  no  value  for  the  mind  as  a  purely  physical 
process ;  that  the  highest  which  it  now  accomplishes 
is  to  furnish  conditions  for  the  development  and  en- 
richment of  spiritual  subjects ;  that  it  and  the  facul- 
ties of  such  are  preadapted  to  each  other ;  therefore, 
that  the  key  to  its  meaning  is  to  be  found  in  this  its 
highest  attainment,  and  can  be  in  no  lower.  Thus  it 
comes  to  be  regarded  as  the  Divine  wealth,  rejoiced 
in  by  God  himself,  and  to  be  rejoiced  in  by  his  image. 

Here  is  the  conflict  of  faith:  for  the  a  posteriori 
evidence  seems  to  preponderate  that  the  forces  of 
nature  are  a  realm  apart,  and  go  in  their  own  ways  in- 
dependent of  all  humanly  required  interference,  and 
with  no  respect  to  human  needs ;  that  man,  discover- 
ing how  far  he  can  use  them  for  his  own  ends,  obtains 
a  temporary  and  insecure  dominion,  but  in  the  end  is 
surely  crushed  by  them  :  while  the  conclusion  reached 


180  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

a  priori,  or  a  posteriori  from  a  wider  induction,  leads 
to  the  conviction  that  man  is  higher  than  nature,  that 
nature  then  can  subserve  not  only  his  lower  and  physi- 
cal needs  but  his  higher  mental  and  moral  ones,  that 
her  power  and  victory  stop  short  of  his  innermost  fort- 
ress, which  her  seeming  triumphs  have  only  strength- 
ened and  enriched.  This  conviction,  thus  reached 
by  thought,  never,  however,  so  far  triumphs  over  the 
impressions  derived  from  the  phenomenal  world,  which 
appeal  to  his  sensitive  animal  nature  and  to  his  im- 
agination, as  to  lift  the  thinking  subject  above  all 
mental  conflict  and  beyond  the  region  and  the  need 
of  faith.  This  latter  conviction,  too,  may  be  supple- 
mented and  confirmed  by  the  belief  in  a  Divine  rev- 
elation, and  faith  thereby  reach  such  height  and  purity 
as  no  longer  to  be  assaulted  by  such  a  posteriori  con- 
flicting impressions,  and  to  be  subjected  to  other  and 
more  purely  spiritual  trials ;  in  which  latter  case, 
while  it  seems  simply  absurd  not  to  admit  the  doctrine 
of  an  all-knowing  Providence,  to  become  a  trial  this 
Providence  must  seem  so  inexplicable  as  to  start  the 
doubt  whether  it  be  also  loving. 

The  habitual  thought  underlying  and  justifying 
Christian  Prayer  is,  then,  that  all  the  movements  and 
changes  of  the  physical  universe  are  adapted  to  the 
needs  and  ends  of  the  intelligences,  between  whom 
and  God  they  mediate  ;  that  the  Divine  Providence 
is  omniscient  as  well  as  omnipotent,  minute,  and  far- 
reaching;  that  human  freedom  is  limited  to  giving 
the  moral  form  to  human  action ;  that  the  material 
content  is  altogether  in  God's  hand,  and  subject  to  no 
possible  interference,  is  forever  in  harmony  with  the 
whole  comprehensive  scheme.  What  is  called  a  special 


CHRIS  TIA  N  PR  A  YER.  1 8 1 

providence  can  only  be,  under  such  a  scheme  of 
thought,  when  the  adaptation  of  the  physical  processes, 
which  move  by  fixed  laws  but  are  nevertheless  adapted 
to  human  subjective  needs,  is  seen  or  suspected  to  be 
such.  When  such  connection  or  fitness  seems  appa- 
rent, it  is  a  boon  and  a  support  to  faith ;  and  the 
Christian  has  full  right  so  to  regard  it,  though  it  can 
never  amount  to  absolute  conviction,  unless  produced 
by  some  supernatural  mental  elevation  allowed  or  pro- 
duced for  special  providential  ends.  The  Christian  life 
is  full  of  such  experiences.  They  come  sometimes  im- 
mediately when  the  favorable  response  to  prayer  is 
quick  in  coming.  They  come — these  insights — oftener 
afar  off,  when  the  "  patience  "  attained  has  made  such 
"  experience  "  or  insight  possible  and  profitable.  And 
this  is  no  contradiction  of  a  doctrine  of  General  Prov- 
idence moving  by  fixed  laws  and  preadapted  to  the 
needs  of  the  aesfreofate  human  race,  to  hold  and  to 
gladly  think  that  such  adaptation  to  individual  needs, 
may  at  times  be  inferred,  or  seen,  or  felt,  and  have 
connection  with  the  fitness  for  such  adaptation  induced 
by  particular  prayers. 

The  highest  law  of  the  universe,  highest  because 
resulting  in  the  highest  attainment,  is  that  it  minis- 
ters to  human  knowledge,  enrichment  and  delight,  to 
moral  and  spiritual  perfection.  That  the  relation  of 
the  Divine  consciousness  to  the  consciousness  of  the 
spiritual  human  subject  shall  be  normal,  that  the  latter 
shall  move  towards  the  truth  and  purity  of  the  former, 
is  a  worthier  Divine  end,  a  higher  reach  of  the  Divine 
power,  than  any  physical  convulsion  that  dissipates 
itself  in  physical  results  merely.  God  is  nearer  in 
the  "  still  small  voice  "  than  in  the  "  thunder  "  or  the 


1 82  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

"  earthquake."  Man  in  his  deepest  soul  knows  him- 
self to  be  above  nature,  and  destined  to  rule  her,  as 
God  rules  her,  as  soon  as  he  can  be  trusted  with  such 
dominion.  Physical  magnitudes  are  as  nothing  when 
tested  by  spiritual  measurements.  They  merely 
trouble  and  bewilder  the  imagination,  and  crumble  in 
the  crucible  of  thought.  Grandeur  of  physical  results 
is  no  true  measure  of  force.  These  only  dissipate  it, 
and  it  is  intensest  in  its  concentration  and  before  its 
dissipation.  Even  now  it  is  most  concentrated  in  the 
brain  of  the  philosopher,  who  comes  to  utter  and 
make  appreciable  a  thought  which  by  and  by  con- 
vulses the  social  world.  In  the  Divine  self-limitation, 
whereby  was  accomplished  the  Incarnation  of  the 
Eternal  Son,  all  force  is  concentrated,  which  reaches 
all  that  the  illimitable  space  contains.  That  man's 
physical  littleness  in  comparison  with  the  great  mag- 
nitudes should  have  troubled  the  human  mind,  and 
assaulted  its  faith,  is  a  strange  instance  of  narrow  and 
one-sided  thinkingf. 

But  much  as  we  know  of  nature,  there  is  more  yet 
to  be  known.  She  is  full  of  subtle  powers  and  possi- 
ble relations  only  as  yet  partially  reached  by  human 
intelligence.  Man's  growing  knowledge  here  is  sim- 
ply a  delight.  But  much  as  he  may  yet  discover,  the 
realm  of  pure  spirit  can  never  in  this  life,  and  with  our 
present  faculties,  come  within  the  terms  of  knowledge. 
And  as  man  is  stirred  from  this  source,  as  a  true  uni- 
versal, and  finds  that  his  knowledge  cannot  account 
for  all  that  passes  within  himself,  nor  for  himself,  there 
is  no  bar  to  the  conviction  in  Christian  Prayer,  that 
the  influence  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  the  source  of  all 
life,  as  well  as  of  all  chemical  and  mechanical  move- 


CHRISTIAN  PRA  YER.  183 

ment,  can  be  secured  to  further  its  aspiration,  to  heal 
the  life  fountain,  to  harmonize  the  appetencies  of  the 
nature,  and  to  sanctify  the  character.  So  far  as  the 
answer  to  Prayer  is  a  providential  change,  or  an  adap- 
tation permitted  to  be  seen,  it  may  come  within  the 
sphere  of  knowledge  ;  so  far  as  it  is  mystical,  it  must 
elude  it.  The  ordinary  object-matter  of  Prayer — 
light,  guidance,  strength,  or  comfort — is  imparted  thus 
mystically.  What  can  be  thought,  through  specula- 
tion, of  the  modus  through  which  these  results  are 
effected,  will  be  inquired  into  hereafter.  But  here  we 
content  ourselves  in  saying  that  the  influences  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  are  in  proportion  to  the  degrees  of  faith 
and  spiritual  striving.  Thus  the  Christian  works,  and 
God  the  Holy  Spirit  works  in  him  and  by  him,  with 
holiness  and  ultimate  perfection  as  the  end  and  aim. 
We  may  classify  the  results  of  such  spiritual  influence 
according  to  our  analysis  of  human  character  ;  and  the 
influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  accomplishing  these  is 
figured  by  what  is  called  his  seven-fold  gifts.  These, 
as  was  said  before,  may  be  thought  to  come  in  fullest 
measure  and  with  many-sided  potentiality,  when  the 
conditions  are  laid,  i.  c,  at  that  period  of  the  Christian 
career  when  there  is  self-consecration  in  earnest,  when 
inchoate  faith  becomes  Christian  faith,  and  results  in 
overt  action,  i.  c,  at  Adult  Baptism,  or  at  Confirmation 
as  marking  such  self-consecration. 

There  is  no  proper  prayer  prescribed  by  Jesus 
Christ  for  the  ordinance  of  Baptism.  What  is  prom- 
ised is  to  the  subjective  faith  and  the  objective  applica- 
tion of  water  in  the  name  of  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Spirit ;  and  the  promise  is  fulfilled  in  the  manner  here- 
tofore displayed.    Yet  this  transaction,  if  sincere,  con- 


184  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

tains,  both  on  the  side  of  the  subject  and  of  the  ad- 
ministrator, the  essential  elements  of  Prayer, — the 
sense  of  dependence,  the  craving  for  the  Divine  favor, 
the  submission  to  the  terms  of  its  bestowal,  and  the 
recognition  on  both  sides  of  the  true  and  revealed  idea 
of  the  First  Principle,  the  Unity  in  Trinity.  Yet  the 
absence  of  this  just  estimation  on  either  side  would 
not  impair  its  validity,  or  its  objective  worth,  which 
still  reaches  the  subject  according  to  the  degrees  of 
his  capacity.  The  internal  imperfections  of  intelli- 
gence or  intent  on  the  part  of  the  administrator  do  not 
bind  and  fetter  the  Divine  intent  ;  though  no  claim  to 
the  benefit  as  promised  can  be  made,  if  there  is  neg- 
lect of  the  objective  formula. 

In  the  case  of  the  Holy  Supper  the  prescription  is 
more  complex.  If  Jesus'  acts  in  the  institution  of 
this  sacrament  be  a  pattern  to  be  followed  for  all 
time,  which  his  words  imply  and  which  his  disciples 
have  ever  taken  for  granted,  the  outline  is :  (i)  the 
blessing  of  the  elements,  which  accomplishes  a  setting 
apart  for  holy  use,  or  consecration  ;  (2)  the  breaking 
of  the  bread,  the  outpouring  of  the  wine  ;  and  (3)  the 
giving  of  the  same  to  the  intended  participants,  with 
the  accompanying  declaration  of  the  mystical  virtue 
of  such  reception,  viz.,  the  conveyance  of  the  results 
of  the  broken  body  and  shed  blood  over  to  them. 
The  essential  elements  of  this  entire  formula  may 
still  be  preserved,  even  though  there  be  minute  varia- 
tions, and  the  promise  holds  good  to  the  objective 
observance,  even  though  the  subjective  mind  accom- 
panying be  still  defective  ;  for,  as  in  the  case  of  Bap- 
tism, God  is  not  fettered  by  the  unwisdom  or  the  weak- 
ness of  the  administrators  ;  and  the  benefits  flow  out 
upon  the  recipients,  as  heretofore  displayed. 


CHRIS  TIA  N  PR  A  YER.  1 8  5 

In  all  this  there  is  contained,  as  in  the  other  case, 
the  essential  elements  of  Prayer.  The  whole  trans- 
action may  be  regarded  as  a  symbolic  prayer,  and 
what  is  accomplished  is  the  prescribed  ordinance  and 
its  benefit,  all  of  the  factors  of  which  are  inter-de- 
pendent and  condition  each  other.  The  elements 
thus  consecrated  are,  (not  phenomenally,  but  in  the 
vital  nourishment  which  they  convey,)  the  broken 
body  and  the  blood  shed,  whereby  the  new  life  comes 
to  be,  to  the  faithful  recipients.  The  regenerative 
virtue  of  the  great  sacrifice  reaches  them  through 
these  elements  thus  in  faith  received,  which  faith  has 
reached  its  ultimate  and  its  expression,  when  the  ad- 
ministrator and  the  recipients  have  joined  together  in 
the  sacrificial  offering  made  in  the  prescribed  form, 
and  with  its  entire  observance. 

There  is  little  or  nothing  gained  for  thought,  at 
least  for  the  common  mind,  by  attempting  to  expli- 
cate further  this  fact  thus  revealed  as  passing  beneath 
the  shows  of  phenomenal  existence, — by  setting  im- 
agination to  work  to  do  what  it  can  do  as  well  at  any 
time  whatever,  by  speculating  upon  changes  wrought 
in  the  immanent  structural  relation  of  these  elements, 
by  calling  in  thus  the  aid  of  a  doubtful  science  and 
metaphysic.  These  are  mere  and  successless  tenta- 
tives  of  the  curious  intellect,  and  tend  to  impair  rather 
than  to  increase  the  moral  effect  or  religious  efficacy 
of  the  ordinance.  They  call  one  away  from  the  ex- 
ercise of  faith,  which  involves  self-scrutiny,  and  a 
reaching  out  for  the  Divine  heart,  to  engage  in  a 
mental  endeavor  to  find  meaning  in  propositions,  or  to 
occupy  imagination  with  an  impossible  task.  In  this 
ordinance  which  Jesus  prescribed  to  be  of  universal 
obligation,  the   most  essential  subjective  estimation 


1 86  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

ought  to  be  within  the  power  of  the  simplest  soul  ; 
while  from  its  manifold  relations  it  ought  to  be  such 
as  to  repay  the  utmost  thought-labor  of  the  theo- 
logian, and  from  its  clearness  be  satisfying  and  not 
bewildering.  That  so  much  controversy  has  been  ex- 
pended upon  the  sacrament  of  the  Eucharist  with  so 
little  result  shows  that  some  divergence  from  the 
pathway  which  becomes  clearer  and  leads  to  an  illu- 
mined end  must  have  been  earlier  made  ;  and  the 
present  author  thinks  that  this  divergence  has  arisen 
from  an  insufficient  and  inconclusive  conception  of 
the  doctrine  of  the  sacrificial  Atonement  of  Christ, 
which  too  depends  upon  a  right  view  of  the  self- 
limiting  act  in  the  Incarnation  itself;  and  that  Eucha- 
ristic  enquiries  must  follow  the  lead  and  share  the 
fate  of  these  earlier  ones,  and  that  regardless  of  these 
all  enquiry  is  fruitless. 

And  in  the  third  instance,  when  selected  ones  are 
consecrated  to  the  uses  of  the  ministry,  though  no 
prayer  is  prescribed,  all  on  both  sides  is  done  in  the 
prayerful  spirit,  and  the  whole  transaction,  with  what- 
ever outward  observance  accompanying,  is  a  symbolic 
prayer  ;  and  the  reply  on  God's  part  is  the  Holy 
Spirit  to  enlighten  and  aid  the  recipient  of  such  conse- 
cration in  these  the  finest  uses  to  which  humanity  can 
be  put.  The  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  perennial  then, 
and  not  something  complete  and  finished,  and  is 
graded  by  the  subjective  condition  of  the  one  thus 
consecrated,  in  all  his  ministrations,  except  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  sacraments,  the  virtue  of  which 
does  not  vary  with  the  degrees  of  his  worthiness.  But 
of  this  more  at  length  hereafter. 

The  Apostle  Paul  gave  the  precept :  "  Pray  without 


CHRIS  TIA  N  PR  A  YER.  1 87 

ceasing."  This  is  fulfilled  not  by  frequent  repetitions 
of  words  audible  or  inaudible,  nor  is  dependent  upon 
words  at  all,  except  as  they  are  the  habitual  symbols 
of  thought ; — but  by  possessing  constantly  the  prayer- 
ful spirit,  by  doing  every  thing  beyond  one's  self  and 
upon  one's  self  in  subjection  to  the  Divine  will,  and 
with  the  sense  of  dependence  upon  the  Divine  bless- 
ing. This  need  never  be  lost.  In  proportion  as  the 
sense  of  the  Divine  sustentation  is  fresh  and  continu- 
ous do  we  pray  without  ceasing.  Thus  the  whole 
life-consciousness  of  the  Christian  may  be  a  prayer. 
Thus  no  action  whatever,  no  mood  of  mind  is  morally 
or  religiously  indifferent.  If  not  sinful  it  is  ever  sub- 
jectively right  and  holy,  and  growing  into  more  and 
more  conformity  with  the  objectively  right  and  holy. 
"  Every  thought "  may  be  "  brought  into  captivity  to 
the  obedience  of  Christ." 

There  still  remains,  however,  the  need  of  an  en- 
deavor to  reach  the  limit  of  our  thought,  and  dis- 
cover, if  possible,  the  mode  of  the  Holy  Spirit's 
working,  or  at  least  within  what  bounds  He  works. 
But  we  have  waited,  and  will  wait  still  farther,  till  all 
the  questions  are  opened  which  may  be  illumined  by 
such  enquiry,  so  far  as  it  may  be  successful,  and  whose 
full  elucidation  is  measurably  dependent  upon  it. 
This  will  be  found,  then,  in  the  proper  place. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

JESUS'    BAPTISM, THE    CHRISTIAN    MINISTRY. 

The  preaching  of  John  the  Baptist  seems  to  have 
had  for  its  intent,  to  arouse  the  conscience  of  his  audi- 
tors, to  illumine  the  moral  law  or  the  Divine  will, 
whether  intuited  or  revealed,  and  to  freshen  the  judg- 
ment and  feeling  of  obligation  to  the  same.  The 
moral  distinctions  grow  sharper  for  the  mind,  as  the 
facts  are  brought  home  that  the  law  of  love,  on  the 
one  hand,  is  or  may  be  more  entirely  and  gladly  ful- 
filled, and  on  the  other  more  neglected,  and  wilfully 
departed  from.  To  come  to  John's  Baptism  was  to 
signalize  one's  acquiescence  in  the  truth  of  such 
preaching,  and  the  consequent  obligations.  This  was 
making  apparent  to  all  on-lookers  that  their  religion 
was  more  than  a  mere  cultus,  and  that  any  cultus  was 
only  declarative  or  symbolical. 

That  Jesus  should  have  submitted  to,  indeed  have 
asked  for,  this  Baptism,  was  to  give  his  imprimatur  to 
the  truth  and  intent  of  John's  preaching.  To  testify 
to  the  surrounding  world  that  one  recognizes  the 
validity  of  these  distinctions,  and  proposes  to  live  ac- 
cording to  the  requirements  of  the  moral  law  is  part 
of  man's  duty,  and  thus  belongs  to  the  fulfilling  of 
righteousness.  But  in  the  case  of  Jesus,  instead  of 
being,  as  with  others,  a  recognition  of  the  obligation 
of  repentance  in  one's  own  case,  and  a  sign  that  such 

188 


JESUS'  BAPTISM.  189 

repentance  has  been  begun,  this  submission  to  John's 
Baptism  was  rather  a  declaration  that  the  law  of  love 
is  the  Divine  law  for  man,  and  that  He,  Jesus,  is  a 
member  of  that  human  brotherhood,  of  that  ideal 
commonwealth  which  such  law  is  intended  to  make 
real. 

This  coming  to  John's  Baptism  was  the  second  act 
of  Jesus  of  which  we  have  any  record.  It  is  men- 
tioned in  nearly  the  same  words  by  the  authors  of  the 
synoptical  gospels,  and  alluded  to  in  the  fourth,  which 
indicates  that  in  the  mind  of  the  Evangelists  it  was 
an  important  and  significant  occurrence.  The  first 
recorded  words  of  his  are  those  He  spoke  when  a 
child  in  the  temple,  which  are  a  recognition  of  the 
personal  tie,  the  religious  relation,  on  which  is 
grounded  all  moral  obligation,  and  which  furnishes 
for  the  fulfilment  of  this  last  the  true  motive- 
spring.  And  the  second  recorded  words  and  act  of 
his  are  a  recognition  of  the  universality  of  the  obliga- 
tion of  the  moral  law,  and  that  He  has  entered  into 
the  brotherhood  whom  it  binds.  Thus,  we  may 
say,  by  his  first  act  He  claims  his  fellowship  with  the 
Father, — by  the  second  his  solidarity  with  the  human 
race,  in  which  two  relations  He  appears  as  a  media- 
tor, and  seems  ready  for  his  active  Ministry.  This  is 
his  true  Ordination.  The  Holy  Spirit,  who  has 
mediated  thus  far  his  moral  and  religious  develop- 
ment, now  enters  upon  a  new  function,  accompanies 
him  in  the  work  of  his  Ministry,  and  adapts  him  to  its 
progressive  requirements.  His  love,  which  hitherto 
has  been  contemplative,  and  active  in  a  limited  sphere, 
now  overflows  these  bounds  and  reaches  after  the 
whole  human  race.   We  have  here  displayed  (and  for 


igo  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

the  first  time  on  this  planet)  the  moral  ideal  of 
humanity  in  this  world  of  limitations.  Love  must 
needs  gather  all  things  to  itself,  and  will  be  crucified,  if 
need  be,  to  gather  all  or  any  to  itself.  (Love  in  its 
activity  here  appears  as  a  dialectic,  concrete  necessity, 
having  its  origin,  might,  and  permanence  in  the  im- 
mutable constitution  of  things,  higher  and  more  real 
than  any  metaphysical,  physical,  or  logical  necessity, 
which  exists  only  in  and  for  the  human  mind,  and  has 
no  existence  beyond  it.)  Here  now  steps  forth  for 
our  regard  and  imitation  the  pattern  man,  whose 
career  is  to  be  so  wonderful.  He  is  declared  to  be 
the  Beloved  Son,  not  as  the  Son  of  God  simply,  but 
as  the  Son  of  Man,  as  showing  the  form  of  a  servant, 
the  filial  obedience  which  is  to  lose  the  name  of  ser- 
vice in  its  perfection.  And  through  the  symbolic 
sights  and  sounds  accompanying  (whose  physical  pos- 
sibility and  method  are  here  a  matter  of  indifference), 
and  which  indicate  the  mind  of  the  Father,  we  have  the 
seal  of  the  absolute  Holiness  stamped  upon  this  ideal 
career,  and  the  mystical  influence  needed  for  his  Minis- 
try promised  and  begun  to  be  supplied.  In  all  this  is  a 
Divine  act,  in  the  triplicity  of  its  relations.  But  the 
act  of  the  Son  is  the  act  of  him  incarnate,  and  there- 
fore is  an  act  of  self-consecration.  This  then  is  the 
true  Ordination,  and  the  model  for  all  subsequent 
ordination. 

But  the  same  Holy  Spirit,  whose  mystical  influence 
is  to  be  with  him  in  his  work,  now  withdraws  him  into 
solitude,  where,  all  other  solicitations  being  removed, 
He  may  enter  into  self-scrutiny,  may  commune  with 
the  Father  in  spirit,  and  with  the  Father  as  seen  in 
the    virgin    world,    undefaced    or   undetermined    by 


JESUS1  BAPTISM.  191 

human  change.  Thus  even  Jesus,  who  would  devote 
himself  to  labor  for  humanity,  needs  this  period  of 
self-communion  to  measure  his  own  strength,  to  pon- 
der his  purposes,  to  accumulate  vigor,  and  be  guarded 
against  all  surprises.  Here,  however,  the  old  uni- 
verse, and  the  old  humanity  which  He  has  come  to 
share  and  to  transmute,  asserts  itself,  and  shows  its 
hostility.  Temptation  befalls  him  in  the  character- 
istic forms  in  which  it  reaches  all  the  children  of  men  ; 
— the  bodily  appetites,  which  lead  men  to  carnal  sin  ; 
ambition,  which  leads  to  spiritual  sin  ;  and  covetous- 
ness,  which  mediates  the  two.  Thus  He  feels  the 
force,  essentially,  of  all  temptation  that  befalls  human- 
ity, of  all  temptations  but  one, — and  that  he  cannot 
feel  as  yet, — that  which  finds  him  in  Gethsemane, 
and  on  the  Cross,  the  temptation  to  draw  back  from 
death.  And  in  the  successful  resistance  to  this  is 
such  moral  fibre  gained  that  his  obedience  thenceforth 
seems  easy  and  spontaneous.  The  sacrificial  charac- 
teristic of  it  becomes  milder,  or  almost  drops  off  now, 
until  it  returns  in  full  force  in  the  terrible  conflicts 
which  befall  him  near  the  end. 

That  the  self-consecration  of  Jesus  to  his  ministerial 
work  is  met  by  the  declared  approbation  of  the  Father, 
and  by  the  sign  of  the  needed  spiritual  influence,  and 
that  He  is  thus  objectively  separated,  is  then  Ordina- 
tion in  its  primitive  idea  and  perfect  reality, — and 
thus  and  therein  is  the  idea  of  Ordination  vindicated, 
the  need  of  a  sacred  Ministry  to  do  the  Lord's  work 
on  earth  declared,  and  the  obligation  indicated,  in- 
cumbent upon  some,  to  follow  his  example, — so  to 
consecrate  themselves  and  to  be  consecrated.  He 
offered  himself,  and  the   Father  accepted  him,  and 


192  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

signified  his  acceptance,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  filled 
him  and  was  with  him  in  his  work.  Thus  afterwards 
He  chose  his  disciples  and  they  acquiesced,  or  they 
offered  themselves,  and  He  accepted  them,  and  He 
educated  and  fitted  these,  and  let  them  pass  at  times 
into  their  own  wilderness,  and  in  due  time  He  sent 
them  forth,  illumined  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  to  do  his 
work  in  the  world.  There  will  always  be  the  same 
need  of  such  a  Ministry  to  spread  his  dominion  and 
build  up  his  kingdom  ;  and  what  is  essential  to  con- 
stitute it  seems  to  be  what  was  indicated  in  the 
pattern, — self-consecration,  and  acceptance  by  God 
or  his  representatives,  and  some  objective  consecra- 
tion veiled  in  appropriate  symbol ;  a  meeting  of  the 
inward  and  outward  acts,  and  the  promise  and  the 
bestowal,  as  need  arises,  of  the  spiritual  light  and 
aid. 

Thus,  in  the  evolution  of  the  Christian  process,  the 
idea  of  the  Ministry  seems  to  precede  the  idea  of  the 
Church,  and  Jesus  and  his  disciples  appear  as  preachers 
of  the  gospel  before  the  Church  is  more  than  an  idea, 
before  its  marks  and  tokens  in  the  sacraments  have 
been  instituted,  or  indeed,  in  the  fulness  of  their 
meaning  and  virtue,  have  become  possible.  To  be 
sure  all  Christians,  as  such,  may  and  should  regard 
themselves  as  preachers  of  the  gospel,  bound  to  im- 
part and  extend  it  wherever  they  can,  and  are  for- 
bidden to  order  their  lives  without  regard  to  this 
obligation  ;  and  by  parity  of  reasoning  they  are  and 
should  be  entitled  to  administer  the  rite  of  Baptism, 
to  receive  the  recognition  and  acknowledgment  of 
every  new  disciple  by  this  symbolic  act.  In  this  con- 
sists the  universal  Christian  priesthood,  a  doctrine  of 


JESUS'  BAPTISM.  193 

which  grows  out  of  the  very  idea  of  Christianity  itself, 
and  upon  which  any  doctrine  of  a  particular  and 
limited  priesthood  is  founded.  Hence  while  con- 
senting to  the  propriety  of  a  wiser  and  more  authori- 
tative preaching,  and  to  the  ordinary  limitation  of  the 
permission  to  administer  the  rite  of  Baptism,  that  it 
might  be  safely  and  wisely  done  (a  limitation  rendered 
necessary  by  the  incoming  of  immature  and  unwise 
disciples  into  the  Christian  fold),  the  early  Christian 
consciousness  still  held  the  instinct  that  it  was  a  right 
belonging  to  every  Christian  believer  as  such,  limited 
yet  not  abolished,  to  make  known  the  good  news  of 
Christ,  and  to  receive  into  fellowship  any  new  disciple. 
And  that  this  rite  was  administered  by  the  disciples 
in  general,  and  without  any  such  prolonged  examina- 
tion as  in  later  times  has  been  thought  necessary, 
accepting  the  evidence  of  sincerity  given  by  the 
abandonment  of  Pagan  privileges,  is  likely,  if  not 
entirely  evident  from  the  occurrences  on  the  day  of 
Pentecost,  and  by  the  summary  baptism  of  the  house- 
hold of  the  jailor. 

It  must  by  all  means  be  held  that  any  limited 
priesthood  grows  thus  out  of  the  limitations  of  the 
universal  priesthood.  The  end  of  Christianity  is 
summarized  in  its  principle,  universal  love.  It  re- 
forms mankind  from  within  and  not  from  without.  It 
is  a  living  growth  and  not  a  mechanism.  The  Church 
is  ideally  perfect,  and  its  actual  imperfections  are  to 
be  sloughed  off,  and  not  externally  removed.  All 
which  does  not  render  any  less  needful  the  outward 
appliances  whose  intent  is  to  remove  the  impediments 
to  healthy  growth.  A  limited  'priesthood  is  a  neces- 
sity for  the  militant  state  ;  and  will  not,  like  the  uni- 

Vol.  II. 


i94  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

versal  priesthood,  survive  the  consummation.  Its 
obligation  is  only  the  stronger  by  making  it  grow  out 
of  the  limitations  of  the  latter.  Like  the  old  law,  it 
exists  in  a  parenthesis,  and  is  only  rightly  understood 
by  relating  what  went  before,  and  is  to  come  after. 
Its  obligations  are  not  the  less  binding  because  they 
are  transitory,  any  more  than  the  precept  to  be 
honest  is  none  the  less  binding  because  in  the  ulti- 
mate set  of  relations  such  a  precept  cannot  exist. 

A  further  and  more  unyielding  limitation  of  this 
universal  priesthood  is  rendered  needful  and  became 
actual  from  the  requirements  of  the  other  sacrament. 
The  conditions  for  the  proper  administration  of  this 
were  such  as  to  require  more  care  and  caution.  Not 
every  Christian  believer,  signalizing  by  his  acceptance 
of  Baptism  his  entrance  upon  an  untried  career,  was 
at  all  times  in  such  a  condition  of  genuine  repentance 
and  innocence  as  to  receive  the  influx  of  Divine- 
human  nourishment,  which  could  only  flow  into  and 
through  an  unimpeded  channel.  The  scrutiny  of 
wiser  ones  than  ordinary,  of  those  specially  trained 
and  fitted  for  such  a  function,  was  needed  for  this, 
and  their  judgment  was  required  to  determine  this ; 
and  hence,  by  an  instinct  as  profound  as  the  other,  it 
was  felt  that  their  intervention  was  required  to  deter- 
mine that  the  virtue  of  the  rite  might  be  really  im- 
parted ;  and  hence  grew  up  the  judgment  that  only 
such  administration  was  secure  and  valid.  While 
indeed  the  historic  evidence  is  lacking  that  any  such 
limitation  was  required  by  Apostolic  authority,  the 
universal  practice,  and  consent  to  the  same  without 
questioning,  furnishes  presumptive  evidence  that  this 
was  the  case. 


JESUS'  BAPTISM.  195 

That  the  celebration  of  the  Holy  Supper  as  a  com- 
plete rite,  including  consecration  and  administration, 
is  confined  to  a  proper  priesthood,  has  then  intrinsic 
fitness  ;  and  it  is  thus  related  to  the  whole  question 
of  discipline,  and  the  need  to  keep  the  Church  pure 
and  fair  as  may  be.  It  thus  comes  to  be  regarded 
as  something  more  than  a  perfunctory  performance, 
and  as  having  the  highest  and  finest  moral  and  reli- 
gious uses.  The  idea  of  the  priestly  function  is  only 
degraded  to  the  lower  level  of  the  priesthood  of  other 
religions,  if  it  becomes  a  mere  soulless  mechanism,  a 
"  vain  repetition,"  if  that  which  is  prominent  and  most 
essential  in  it  is  not  the  religious  and  loving  act. 
Priest  and  people  should  in  the  Eucharist  meet  in  the 
very  finest  relation,  and  not  in  any  coarser  one.  But, 
as  was  said  before,  the  Divine  power  is  not  fettered 
by  human  imperfections,  and  it  can  act  upon  those 
God  would  bless,  even  though  the  media  be  lowered  in 
conception  or  performance,  even  though  they  be  im- 
perfect or  even  maimed.  Whatever  ritual  be  made 
to  surround  the  celebration  of  this  ordinance,  has  its 
worth  from  its  ability  to  feed  the  flame  of  religious 
emotion,  to  intensify  the  religious  relation.  It  may 
dissipate  and  weaken  it,  or  it  may  enrich  and 
strengthen  it.  No  objective  guide  is  possible,  and 
such  observances  must  vary  with  times  and  places, 
and  have  their  own  method ;  like  all  other  human 
tentatives,  will,  probably,  vibrate  between  extremes, 
and  will  never,  in  the  imperfect  state,  reach  a  fixed 
equilibrium. 

We  may  add  that  if,  as  does  seem  historically  evi- 
dent, the  division  of  the  functions  of  the  Christian 
Ministry  into  different  classes,  and  the  Ministry  itself 


196  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

into  different  orders,  grew  out  of  the  needs  and  re- 
quirements of  the  situation,  and  if  it  was  guided  by 
the  judgment  of  those  who,  on  other  grounds,  we  have 
reason  to  think  were  specially  enlightened  by  the 
Holy  Spirit,  and  claimed  to  be,  then  the  burden  of 
proof  that  the  celebration  of  the  Eucharist  was  not 
thus  limited  to  the  particular  priesthood  lies  with 
those  who  deny  it  ;  otherwise  no  such  division  of 
functions  could  be  made  out  to  have  existed.  And 
the  practice  of  Christian  professors,  no  matter  what 
has  been  their  theory  of  the  constitution  of  the  Chris- 
tian Ministry,  has  been  an  almost  universal  recogni- 
tion of  this.  The  administration  of  the  Eucharist  by 
laymen  as  such  has  been  a  rare  exception  and,  if  or 
when  begun  to  be  practised,  almost  immediately,  and 
for  economic  reasons,  limited  or  abandoned  ;  which 
shows  that  such  division  of  function  grows  naturally  out 
of  the  needs  of  the  situation  ;  and  the  whole  question  is 
narrowed  down  to  whether  this  shall  be  made  by  an 
unchangeable  method,  having  sufficient  sanction,  or 
left  open  for  human  caprice,  not  yet  to  be  trusted. 
The  need  of  selected  ones,  to  give  themselves  entirely 
to  the  task  of  spreading  the  knowledge  of  Christ,  and 
edifying  and  uniting  the  ends  and  energies  of  Chris- 
tian believers,  and  to  plan  their  whole  lives  in  accord- 
ance with  such  lofty  function,  must  exist  for  all  time, 
or  during  the  militant  period,  as  strongly  as  it  did  in 
the  early  days.  The  idea  of  Ordination,  or  self-con- 
secration and  acceptance  by  authority,  thus  illustrated 
by  the  Ordination  of  Jesus  Christ  himself,  and  that  of 
his  Apostles,  was  not  then  a  provisional  necessity,  but, 
as  thus  realized,  must  be  patterned  after  till  the  end  of 
the  earthly  dispensation.  Jesus  thus  gave  himself  to  the 


JESUS'  BAPTISM.  197 

ministerial  work,  and  was  accepted  by  the  Father,  and 
enlightened  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  His  chosen  disciples 
thus  consecrated  themselves,  and  were  appointed  by 
him,  and  received  the  Holy  Spirit  for  the  needs  of 
their  function,  and  till  such  gift  was  outwardly  sym- 
bolized their  mission  did  not  commence,  nor  were  their 
powers  full.  Thus  the  idea  of  Ordination  is  for  Chris- 
tianity as  aboriginal  as  the  idea  of  regeneration  itself; 
and  that  it  should  continue  ever  to  be  realized  and 
made  permanent  was  required,  since  the  religion  of 
Christ  had  to  make  its  way  through  and  to  conquer  a 
naughty  and  rebellious  world,  which  would  carry  its 
naughtiness  measurably  into  the  Christian  body,  and 
make,  in  consequence,  the  requirements  of  law  more 
strict  and  rigid. 

That  the  primal  Apostolate  was,  sooner  or  later, 
elaborated  into  a  three-foldness  of  function,  no  one 
denies,  however  they  may  differ  in  opinion  as  to 
whether  it  was  legitimately  done,  and  as  to  the  method 
of  the  transition.  In  the  New-Testament  story  we  read 
that  the  Apostles  parted  first  with  such  functions  as 
could  most  safely  be  spared  to  them,  and  committed  to 
others  the  brotherly  work  of  caring  for  the  poor  and 
the  sick.  These,  besides  this  new  duty,  continued  to 
do,  what  doubtless  they  had  done  before,  to  preach 
and  to  baptize.  This  was  the  institution  of  the  prim- 
itive Diaconate.  And  thereafter,  as  the  Apostles'  cares 
and  work  accumulated,  they  parted  with  higher  func- 
tions, the  task  of  teaching  and  upbuilding  in  the  faith, 
and  the  wise  celebration  of  the  Eucharist.  They 
ordained  elders  in  every  city.  And  as  the  work  still 
grew  upon  their  hands,  and  their  periodical  and  recti- 
fying visitations  grew  rarer,  they  committed  to  care- 


198  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

fully  chosen  ones  the  task  of  such  provisional  over- 
sight and  general  superintendence.  Thus,  whatever 
be  the  origin  and  changes  of  the  names,  and  whatever 
other  mere  temporary  distinctions  were  made  from 
time  to  time,  there  appear,  thus  early,  the  three 
classes  of  functions  which  have  prevailed,  and  been 
more  or  less  carefully  preserved,  in  the  Christian 
Church  ever  since.  With  such  a  Ministry,  to  all  ap- 
pearance, was  the  Christian  body  left  when  the 
Apostles  had  finished  their  allotted  work  and  de- 
parted to  their  rest :  though  the  precise  order  of  the 
development  of  the  same  may  not  have  been  in  every 
case  similar,  other  and  mixed  functions  must  have 
been  parenthetical.  We  find  all  possible  offices  really 
comprised  in  the  notions  of  these  three.  No  distinct 
and  concrete  function  besides  these  appears  in  the 
New  Testament.  None  but  these  appear  afterwards 
when  the  current  of  history  becomes  clear ;  whatever 
other  partial  or  mixed  ones  may  have  come  and  gone 
in  the  intervening  time,  and  whatever  flexibility  these 
three  themselves  have  shown. 

Those  who  think  they  have  sufficient  ground  to  re- 
gard the  Apostolic  writings  as  authoritative,  because 
containing  the  mind  of  the  Spirit,  have  the  same 
ground  to  think  that  these  men,  in  elaborating  the 
Christian  Ministry,  were  divinely  guided,  and  were 
acting  from  something  more  than  their  human  judg- 
ments. Whenever  any  prescription  springs  from 
these,  it  is  well  known  that  St.  Paul  gives  it  in  doubt- 
fulness, or  with  qualification,  and  though  in  such 
cases  he  is  not  sure  he  has  "  the  mind  of  the  Spirit," 
in  most  of  his  teaching  and  action  he  seems  thus 
"  sure."     That  the  early  Christians  regarded  the  Min- 


JESUS'  BAPTISM.  199 

istry  as  elaborated  by  the  Apostles  binding,  seems 
almost  certain,  for  when  there  was  any  doubt  about 
what  was  obligatory,  they  were  ready  enough  to  make 
expostulation  ;  and  since  any  historic  evidence  of  this 
is  wanting,  we  may  again  urge  that  the  burden  of 
proof  is  with  those  who  maintain  that  this  action  of 
theirs  was  not  authoritative  in  perpetuity.  If  such 
proof  is  not  forthcoming,  then  the  ground  for  holding 
the  constitution  of  the  Christian  Ministry,  thus  come 
to  be,  binding  and  unchangeable  is  the  same  as  the 
ground  for  holding  the  Apostolic  writings  to  be  au- 
thoritative, and  the  validity  of  such  ground,  in  both 
cases,  will  depend  upon  our  doctrine  of  Inspiration,  or 
Infallibility,  a  question  to  be  hereafter  considered. 

But  as  the  Christian  Ministry,  thus  constituted, 
grew  out  of  the  needs  of  the  situation  ;  and  was  the 
adaptation  of  the  task  of  the  propagators  of  the  new 
religion  to  the  religious  and  social  conditions  of  the 
time  ;  it  is  obvious  that  when  such  conditions  should 
materially  change,  the  Ministry  thus  constituted  might 
need  to  undergo  some  modification  to  adapt  itself  to 
the  new  conditions,  and  to  be  of  universal  worth. 
Thus  it  must  have  a  kind  of  elasticity.  Human  situ- 
ations cannot  be  crowded  into  it  as  into  a  Procrustean 
mould,  but  it  must  have  power  to  fold  itself  into  the 
needs  of  any  and  whatever  concrete  situation.  And 
so  we  find  in  fact  has  been  the  case  ;  and  that  the  re- 
laxation sometimes  is  so  great  as  to  make  it  look  out- 
wardly other  than  it  originally  appeared,  so  that  it 
might  be  questioned  whether  it  still  existed  as  first 
framed  ;  whether,  in  short,  while  the  names  remained, 
the  titular  offices,  the  functions  should  not  have  so 
changed  as  to  have  dropt  their  original  idea  and  sig- 


200  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

nificance.  Such,  at  first  glance,  appears  indeed  to 
have  been  the  case.  The  Diaconate  is  now  merely 
nominal,  and  for  many  years  has  been  only  so.  Mod- 
ern attempts  to  revive  it  have  been  failures,  which 
shows  that  it  must  have  naturally  and  legitimately 
changed  in  accordance  with  changing  social  condi- 
tions. We  have  the  name  left,  but  the  thing,  the  dis- 
tinct class  of  functions  requiring  a  separate  order,  is 
gone  ;  and  men  are  consecrated  upon  an  idea  which  is 
realized  no  longer  more  than  exceptionally,  and  to  a 
work  which  is  not  done  by  them  any  more  than  it  is 
by  others  on  either  side,  by  the  elders  on  the  one 
hand,  and  by  the  laity,  by  women  in  particular,  on  the 
other,  under  the  supervision  of  such  elders.  The 
Diaconate  is  now,  in  those  Christian  bodies  which 
retain  it  nominally,  merely  a  period  of  trial  and  pro- 
bation for  the  functions  of  the  order  of  Presbyters. 
But  in  this  it  has  its  use,  and  is  entitled  to  be  pre- 
served. The  conditions  for  its  true  revival  may  yet 
occur  again,  and  so  it  could  not  be  safely  dispensed 
with  to  be  created  afresh.  To  do  this  would  be  peril- 
ous, would  trouble,  if  not  break  the  historic  continu- 
ity, which  is  too  valuable  a  thing  to  put  in  peril.  We 
may  think  that  in  its  institution  the  "  mind  of  the 
Spirit "  was  far-sighted,  and  pierced  beyond  our  time. 
So  also  the  Episcopate  has  greatly  changed  with 
the  changing  social  and  political  conditions.  Its  in- 
cumbents have  been  at  times  secular  princes,  and 
their  energies  have  been  diverted  to  alien  ends,  only 
indirectly  subserving  the  welfare  of  Christ's  kingdom. 
The  tendency  very  early  commenced,  and  has  been 
continued,  to  limit  and  narrow  its  functions,  except  in 
the  case  of  fresh  missionary  work,  till  in  our  own  day 


JESUS'  BAPTISM.  201 

we  see  here  and  there  the  beginning  of  the  return 
movement  to  the  primitive  set  of  functions.  In  the 
early  days  the  napoinia  was  of  such  size  only  that  its 
head  could  have  entire  oversight  of  it,  and  responsi- 
bility for  what  was  done  in  it.  The  primitive  idea  of 
the  office  seems  to  have  been  that  its  incumbent  could 
not  or  ought  not  to  shift  or  delegate  his  responsibil- 
ity. Hence  the  custom  of  confining  the  administra- 
tion of  the  rite  of  Confirmation  to  the  Episcopal 
order.  These  were  the  ones  entrusted  to  decide 
whether  such  Christian  faith  existed  as  to  warrant 
admission  to  the  privilege  of  the  sacrament  of  the 
Holy  Supper,  to  watch  for  the  full  blossoming  of  the 
new  life-principle  imparted  in  Baptism.  Not  till 
such  a  period  was  reached  could  the  Holy  Spirit  in 
required  measure  be  imparted.  This  mystical  influ- 
ence for  life's  duties,  whatever  they  should  be,  might 
now  be  given,  and  its  impartation  be  signalized 
by  the  symbolic  action  of  the  chief  and  responsible 
minister,  by  the  laying  on  of  hands  with  prayer.  In 
some  form,  and  with,  perhaps,  another  immediate 
intent,  this  rite  was  of  Apostolic  origin,  and  was  ac- 
companied by  the  charismata,  special  powers  by  God 
bestowed  as  needful  for  the  spread  of  the  religion  in 
the  early  days.  But  when  the  need  of  these  passed 
away  and  they  actually  ceased,  and  any  extraordinary 
manifestation  of  spiritual  influence  existed  no  longer, 
the  rite  was  still  retained  to  mark  the  incoming  of  that 
perpetual  mystical  influence,  as  life  and  its  trials 
needed  it,  yet  which  could  not  be  said  to  be  fully 
given  till  Christian  faith,  the  ethical  sine  qua  non  for 
regeneration,  existed,  of  which  the  responsible  order 
was  the  judge.     But  in  this  respect  the  function  of 


202  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

the  Episcopate  has  been  greatly  changed.  The  duty 
of  so  deciding  has  been  committed  to  others,  to  the 
Presbyterate,  or  even  the  Diaconate,  and  the  Bishop, 
accepting  their  decision,  confines  himself  to  the  per- 
functory work  and  the  mechanical  action  of  laying  on 
of  hands,  his  accompanying  prayer  hardly  coming  up 
to  the  complete  idea  of  intercession.  Thus  the  rite, 
at  times,  may  have  degenerated  into  a  mere  opus 
operatum  significance,  undergoing  the  same  modifica- 
tion of  estimate  with  the  two  sacraments  themselves. 
This  change  in  the  function  of  the  Bishop  has  oc- 
curred from  the  increased  size  of  the  Ttapoixia,  his 
time  and  his  energies  having  been  needed  for  other  and 
(questionably)  more  important  uses.  Over  the  task 
of  Ordination,  however,  he  is  still  supposed  to  keep 
careful  oversight. 

Thus  the  order  of  the  Presbyterate  has  absorbed 
much  of  the  finer  work  of  the  Episcopate,  and  is  the 
only  one  of  the  three  orders  which  has  gained  and  not 
lost  in  its  function  with  the  changing  social  conditions 
of  the  Christian  world  ;  so  that  really,  if  not  nomi- 
nally, but  for  the  solitary  function  of  perpetuating  the 
Ministry,  that  Ministry,  for  its  chief  ends,  has  been 
reduced  to  one  order.  But,  as  before  in  the  case  of 
the  Diaconate,  a  return  movement  towards  the  primi- 
tive idea  has  set  in  ;  and  no  flexibility  in  either  office 
can  ever  amount  to  an  entire  rupture.  The  idea  of 
this  office  is  something  very  high  and  noble.  That  a 
body  of  men  lifted  above  all  earthly  ambition  should 
exist,  thus  with  greater  dispassionateness  to  watch 
over  the  movements  of  the  Christian  body,  to  provide 
for  it  a  devout,  well  equipped,  and  zealous  Ministry, 
to  see  from  their  eminence  needs  that  others  lower 


JESUS'  BAPTISM.  203 

cannot  see,  is  an  idea  so  fascinating,  and  has  such 
intrinsic  worth  to  commend  it,  that  the  office  would  be 
worth  preserving  even  if  we  did  not  think  it  would  be 
a  perilous  departure  from  the  Christian  tradition  to 
abandon  it.  Its  uses,  even  if  they  have  become  in 
the  main  less  finely  spiritual  than  those  of  the  order 
of  elders,  are  yet  of  such  dignity  and  importance, 
requiring  so  rare  powers  (for  the  possession  of  which 
its  incumbents  should  be  chosen),  such  judgment  and 
wisdom,  such  a  comprehensive  outlook,  that  even  for 
its  intrinsic  fitness  they  must  be  fewer  in  number, 
since  this  combination  of  capacities  and  powers  is 
rarer.  Not  always  indeed  have  the  occupants  of  this 
office  possessed,  or  been  selected  for  their  intrinsic 
fitness  :  but  this  imperfect  realization  does  not  impair 
the  truth  and  beauty  of  the  idea.  Indeed,  to  be  fitted 
for  it,  one  must  needs  have  passed  through  the  disci- 
pline of  the  lower  orders  and  become  familiar  with 
their  commoner  and  with  their  finer  spiritual  uses,  in 
order  to  understand  them  and  rule  others  wisely. 
And  the  abandonment  of  the  more  delicate  function, 
the  care  of  souls,  for  the  seemingly  coarser  one,  does 
not  necessitate  that  this  last  should  be  a  merely  per- 
functory one,  since  occasions  arise  when  the  bishop 
must  recall  and  reproduce  all  his  former  experience, 
and  regard  the  case  in  its  manifold  relations  from  a 
higher  and  more  dispassionate  point  of  view.  Still  it 
has  come  to  pass,  and  naturally,  perhaps  inevi- 
tably, and  therefore  providentially,  that  the  care 
of  souls,  the  mediation  between  Christ  and  his  im- 
perfect and  struggling  members,  is  now  confined 
mainly  to  the  order  of  elders.  These  determine  the 
fitness    of    those    who    offer    for    Baptism    and    for 


204  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

the  Eucharistic  sacrifice.  These  watch  over  souls 
in  their  weakness,  and  their  disorders,  and  administer 
to  the  subtlest  needs  and  ailments.  This  is,  indeed, 
the  highest  and  most  far-reaching  use  to  which  any 
human  being  can  be  put ;  higher  indeed  than  any  an- 
gelic ministration  can  be,  for  these  serve  us,  if  at  all, 
with  a  lower  kind  of  service,  and  enter  not  into  our 
penetralia.  It  is  of  all  functions  that  which  most 
nearly  resembles  the  rarest  and  most  Divine  function 
of  Christ  himself  ;  and  we  have  warrant  to  think  that 
the  spiritual  vision  of  the  holy  priest  is  sharpened, 
when  there  is  need,  by  the  Holy  Spirit  to  look  more 
deeply  into  the  human  heart  than  other  men  can 
look,  to  discover  its  secrets,  and  that  he  is  at  times 
enabled  to  speak  and  to  minister  in  words  more  than 
his  own.  It  may  be  said  even  of  him  that  it  is  given 
in  "the  day  and  hour  what  "  he  "shall  speak."  And 
as  the  finest  spiritual  use  must  needs  be  accompanied 
by  the  finest  feeling  and  the  most  exquisite  holy 
emotion,  it  is  probable  too  that  in  the  fulfilment  of 
the  pastoral  use  we  have  the  profoundest  blessedness 
possible  here  on  earth,  and  a  sharing  for  the  time 
being  of  the  eternal  peace  that  sustained  Jesus  Christ 
himself  during  his  earthly  career,  and  which  only  had 
its  occasions  and  periods  of  subsidence  to  enable  him 
to  ascend  from  the  depth  again  into  a  new  increment 
of  blessedness,  and  a  closer  conscious  sharing  of  the 
mind  of  the  Eternal  Father, — an  ineffable  union  of 
love  that  no  human  language  can  describe. 

Thus  we  have  outlined,  according  to  the  require- 
ments a  priori  of  the  scheme  of  Christian  doctrine 
we  have  thus  far  elaborated,  the  idea  of  the  Christian 


JESUS'  BAPTISM.  205 

Church,  as  a  visible  kingdom,  an  organization,  which 
it  measurably  realized  in  its  actual  history,  so  far  as 
the  accounts  thereof  are  entirely  trustworthy.  These 
then  are  the  indispensable  marks :  (1,2)  two  pre- 
scribed rites,  which  are  also  sacraments  both  in  the 
lower  and  in  the  higher  sense,  and  exhaust  all  doc- 
trine which  precedes  them  in  their  symbolic  signifi- 
cance ;  and  (3),  a  Ministry  to  guard  their  administra- 
tion, to  watch  over  the  preaching  of  the  gospel,  to 
make  plans  for  extension  of  the  religion,  to  upbuild 
Christian  believers  in  knowledge,  and  in  the  Christian 
virtues  and  graces,  to  take  note  of  and  mollify  or  cure 
soul-disorders,  and  to  supply,  as  there  is  need,  such 
other  ceremonies  and  modes  of  worship  as  are  required 
by  the  existing  or  changing  social  conditions  of  the 
place  or  time.  These  three  tokens  are  thus  indispen- 
sable for  such  an  organization,  not  only  as  appointed 
by  Jesus  Christ  himself,  but  as  required  in  any  organ- 
ization or  society  which  is  to  be  permanent  and  be 
always  known  to  be  itself.  They  are  consequently 
unchangeable,  or  can  be  changed  only  at  the  peril  of 
the  highest  interests,  since  thereby  would  be  broken 
both  the  symbolic  unity  and  the  historic  continuity. 
Although  the  work  done  by  a  maimed  or  less  perfect 
organization,  lacking  any  one  of  these  marks,  may 
and  does  still  result  in  the  attainment  for  the  individ- 
ual believer  of  the  essential  Christian  character,  any 
defects  in  which  God  can  providentially  and  mystically 
supply,  and  resultant  salvation  of  the  individual  soul : 
yet  in  consequence  of  this  impairment  of  visible 
unity  the  Christian  idea  loses  something  of  attrac- 
tiveness, and,  since  inconsistent  with  its  realization, 
appeals   with  less  force  to  the  outlying  world,  and 


206  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

assaults  often  the  faith  of  the  believer  himself,  thus 
weakening  the  militant  strength,  and  putting  off  the 
day  of  consummation.  All  beside  these  marks, 
having  such  high  authority  and  reasonableness,  may 
indeed  be  changed  on  sufficient  occasion.  But  no 
difference  of  opinion  as  to  matters  in  themselves 
changeable  can  warrant  the  infringement  of  the  unity 
dependent  upon  these  essential  things. 

But  indeed,  from  the  very  conditions  of  this  dis- 
ordered world,  and  during  this  period  of  strife,  no 
organization  can  perfectly  fulfil  the  idea  of  the 
organism,  and  be  commensurate  with  it.  The  Church, 
as  it  exists  in  time,  can  only  imperfectly  represent  the 
Church  as  it  will  exist  in  eternity ;  and  the  possessors 
of  the  "  eternal  life  "  are  not  necessarily  and  exactly 
those  who  are  members  of  the  visible  Church  (which 
indeed  few,  if  any,  have  ever  thought).  There  are 
decayed  branches  upon  the  tree,  into  which  the  life- 
current  does  not  flow,  though  no  one  should  venture 
to  say  that  it  may  not  again  flow.  They,  indeed, 
into  whom  it  will  never  flow  may  be  few,  but  we  can- 
not escape  the  conviction  that  there  are  such.  But 
God  only  knows  them,  and  men  cannot  pronounce 
who  they  are.  They  are  branches  only  in  outward 
seeming,  in  visible  juxtaposition,  and  not  by  vital 
union.  They  have  ceased  to  live  by  their  own  act 
and  by  God's  correspondent  act.  "  Every  branch  in 
me  that  beareth  not  fruit,  He  taketh  away."  This 
taking  away  occurs  at  once,  when  the  attenuated 
thread  of  love  is  finally  snapped. 

And,  in  the  other  direction,  while  to  us,  and  to 
those  to  whom  the  knowledge  of  God's  love  in  Christ 
comes,  there  is  no  other  way  appointed  by  which  to 


JESUS'  BAPTISM.  207 

•become  united  with  Christ  and  his  brethren,  vitally 
and  in  the  organism,  but  through  the  organization  ; 
God  is  not  so  bound  by  his  own  economical  prescrip- 
tion, but  may  still  impart  the  new  life  and  the  mys- 
tical influence,  the  presence  and  efficacy  of  which  we 
can  detect.     "  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them." 

Thus,  turning  either  way,  the  Church  as  an  organi- 
zation does  not  accurately  represent  the  ideal  and 
final  organism  ;  and  it  has  to  pass  through  a  process 
of  purification  and  illumination  ere  it  can  be  presented 
"without  spot,  or  wrinkle,  or  any  such  thing."  Its 
aim  should  be,  however,  to  represent  it  as  nearly  and 
as  perfectly  as  it  can,  in  its  purity  and  in  its  unity. 
Hence  the  occasional  need,  and  sometimes  frequent 
need  of  discipline  to  keep  it  pure,  to  wipe  out  any 
staining  that  may  befall  it,  and  to  make  it  as  attrac- 
tive as  possible  to  all  beyond  it.  Hence,  too,  the  obli- 
gation to  be  at  unity  with  itself,  not  only  by  preserving 
unmodified  its  essential  marks,  but  by  concert  of 
action,  economy  of  expenditure,  and  concentration  of 
zealous  effort, — that  it  may  be  a  disciplined  and  well- 
ordered  army,  and  not  a  series  of  independent  bands 
working  for  the  same  hostile  end,  but  without  con- 
cert, and  liable  to  frequent  clashing  interference  and 
consequent  waste  of  energy.  With  all  the  discre- 
tionary power  lodged  with  its  subordinate  command- 
ers, and  the  inevitable  variation  of  methods  required 
by  different  conditions,  it  yet  should  have  some  out- 
ward symbol  of  its  own  unity.  What  that  symbol 
should  be  is  a  most  interesting  question,  that  will  fur- 
nish matter  for  enquiry  further  on  ;  but  here  we  may 
say  that  without  some  such  symbol  we  cannot  think 
that  we  have  fulfilled  as  completely  as  might  be  done 


208  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

the  idea  of  the  Christian  Church,  as  an  election  from 
the  outlying  world,  imaging  as  perfectly  as  it  can  the 
ideal  and  ultimate  commonwealth. 

But  we  have  not  yet  considered  all  the  conditions 
required  for  such  external  unity.  Another  enquiry 
remains,  and  that  a  most  profound  and  difficult  one. 
The  gospel  of  Christ  has  to  be  so  held  and  taught  as 
to  lose  nothing  of  its  integrity,  as  to  be  unimpaired  in 
its  essential  idea.  Christian  truth  is  liable  to  assault, 
modification,  and  corruption  from  the  outer  world, 
and  to  unhealthy  or  false  development  from  within 
the  Christian  body  itself.  Its  members  come  to  it 
bringing  with  them  pagan  traditions  not  yet  expired, 
native  superstitions,  abnormal  mental  proclivities,  and 
moral  disorders,  all  which  tend  to  affect  the  Christian 
consciousness,  and  which  have  to  be  attenuated,  or 
extirpated  in  and  by  the  Church  itself.  The  Christian 
Church  must  by  all  means  preserve  and  maintain  the 
essential  truth.  If  it  ever  wander  astray,  it  must 
have  within  itself  the  impulse  and  the  force  to  return. 
Hence  the  need  of  a  Theology,  the  gathering  into 
fixedness  the  truth  loosely  held  in  the  general  con- 
sciousness. Hence  the  Christian  dogmas,  out  of 
which  comes  Christian  practice,  and  which  determine 
its  method.  What  means,  if  any,  have  been  or  can 
be  provided  to  make  this  evolution  of  dogma  healthy 
and  trustworthy,  what  means  devised  to  attain  and 
hold  in  its  integrity  and  self-consistency  the  truth  re- 
vealed and  to  be  taught  ? 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

INSPIRATION. 

Inspiration  is  a  word  still  lacking  such  a  definition 
as  all  who  use  it  would  agree  upon.  If  it  were  allowed 
to  mean  no  more  than  a  natural  and  by  no  means  un- 
common, and  at  any  time  or  place  possible  exaltation 
of  the  human  faculties  whereby  they  move  more  freely 
and  vividly,  and  results  of  unusual  value  are  thereby 
attained,  there  would  be  little  dispute  as  to  the  mean- 
ing of  the  word  among  Christians.  The  enquiry  would 
then  simply  be  into  the  conditions  objective  and  sub- 
jective for  such  exalted  activity  ;  and  whether  an 
analysis  of  the  same  may  be  made,  and  its  movement 
or  method  described.  It  may  be  that  the  full  content 
of  the  idea,  as  used  and  contended  for  by  Christians, 
cannot  be  reached,  without  referring  to  and  includ- 
ing this  natural  inspiration.  Indeed  the  endeavor  to 
understand  this  mental  state  is  so  fascinating,  and  the 
experience  of  those  who  have  had  it  something  so 
wonderful,  as  to  call  for  all  the  resources  of  our  physi- 
ological and  psychological  knowledge,  and  will  be 
found  to  carry  us  to  that  limit  where  we  seem  almost 
prepared  to  leap  in  thought  over  the  bound  which 
separates  the  natural  and  temporal  realm  from  the 
spiritual  and  eternal  one.     Of  this  possibly  hereafter. 

But  the  word  as  used  by  Christians,  and  even 
others,  suggests  another  meaning,  and  hints  of  some- 

209 


210  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

thing  beyond  this.  It  implies  that  wherever  the  un- 
usual exercise  of  the  faculties  is  reached,  it  is  through 
an  afflatus,  or  inbreathing  from  some  unseen  and  un- 
comprehended  source.  With  the  properly  Christian 
mind,  however,  educated  in  Christian  dogma,  it  means 
an  inbreathing  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  implies  an  influence 
upon  the  human  mind  from  this  Divine  source  acting 
mystically,  i.  c,  beneath  the  understanding,  as  all  life- 
processes  do  act.  Much  or  most  that  happens  in 
human  experience  is  through  known  relations  and  can 
be  followed  by  the  intelligence  and  to  some  extent 
by  the  imagination.  But  much  likewise  that  happens 
cannot  be  so  followed.  In  endeavoring  to  ascertain 
the  conditions  and  the  law  or  method  of  any  life-pro- 
cess, however  far  we  may  succeed  in  discovering 
and  tracing  them,  we  are  always  met  by  a  mystical 
residuum.  And  however  farther  than  now  science  may 
push  back  the  inquiry  and  illumine  the  process,  it  will 
be  met  still  by  such  a  mystical  residmim.  The  con- 
fession that  this  ultimate  failure  must  ensue  is  com- 
mon among  the  higher  class  of  scientific  men  them- 
selves.  Indeed  it  can  be  made  evident  on  a  priori 
grounds  that  such  must  necessarily  be  the  case.  For, 
not  till  all  the  facts  of  the  universe  are  had  can  there 
be  an  exhaustive  and  entirely  trustworthy  induction 
from  the  same.  And  nature,  probed  into,  is  reveal- 
ing new  facts  and  relations  and  hidden  powers,  with 
such  accelerating  speed,  and  in  such  multiplicity,  that 
we  are  led  to  the  conclusion  that  she  is  inexhaustible, 
and  must  always  retain  more  within  the  sphere  of 
possibility  than  can  be  held  and  systematized  by  our 
present  faculties,  and  become  knowledge.  For  the 
unknown  must  necessarily  limit  our  true  knowledge  of 


INSPIRATION.  211 

the  seemingly  known.  Moreover  nature,  and  human- 
ity too,  as  a  part  of  nature,  yet  transcending  nature, 
is  in  continual  flux  and  development,  which  we  cannot 
forecast,  or  can  forecast  but  little  way  ahead.  We 
can  only  read  it  when  it  has  retired  into  the  past. 
Hence  the  secret  of  the  movement  is  not  in  the  past, 
but  is  yet  to  be  disclosed. 

Thus  while  much  that  happens  in  human  ex- 
perience is  explicable  by  known  relations  to  the  uni- 
verse, much  likewise  that  happens  is  not  so  explicable, 
though  slowly  unravelling  itself  to  our  apprehension. 
Could  man  see  to  the  end  of  this  process  he  could 
govern  it,  or  adapt  himself  to  it,  and  his  consciousness 
would  be  identical  with  the  Divine  consciousness  so 
far  as  it  is  manifested  in  the  actual  universe. 

Certain  happenings  in  human  experience  we  are 
forced,  for  the  time  being  at  least,  to  refer  to  such 
unknown  relations.  The  Divine  power  working 
mystically,  the  fundamental  secret  energy  beneath  all 
natural  law,  which  to  bound  sharply  from  the  sphere 
of  our  actual  or  possible  knowledge  is  the  summit  of 
human  scientific  attainment, — this  is  what  Christians 
think  when  they  name  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  is  an  es- 
sential element  in  all  gi'ace  or  favor,  whatever  prov- 
idential change  that  may  also  include.  Philosophy 
thus  brings  us  to  a  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  and 
the  Scriptural  assumption  and  verbiage  has  here 
rational  vindication. 

The  need  of  thinking  such  mystical  influence  is 
equally  valid,  whether  we  regard  it  as  reaching  man 
through  his  physical-psychical  being,  and  as  related  to 
the  universe  through  his  sensory  ; — or  through  his 
psychical-spiritual  being  reaching  him  from  the  prop- 


212  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

er  spiritual  realm,  the  source  of  pure  thought  and 
feeling  ;  or  as  it  reaches  him  in  the  concrete,  in  the 
synthesis  of  these  two  relations.  His  experience  may 
be  thought  to  be  determined  immediately  by  the 
mystical  power  veiled  in  the  physical  forces  which 
reach  his  organism,  and  by  it  affecting  mediately 
his  thought,  feeling  and  emotion ;  or  as  acting 
directly  upon  this  last,  and  mediately  upon  the 
other ;  but  upon  the  one  never  without  respect  to 
the  other. 

Hence  it  follows  in  the  line  marked  out  by  the 
Christian  doctrine  hitherto  explicated,  that  there  is  a 
sense  in  which  all  Christians,  all  believing  and  bap- 
tized, are  inspired  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  are  subject 
to  influences  from  him  not  traceable  by  the  under- 
standing. The  questions  will  then  arise  (i)  whether 
such  mystical  action  is  utterly  apart  from  any  provi- 
dential action  which  can  be  followed  by  intelligence ; 
or  (2)  whether  it  operates  in  it  and  through  it,  and 
identifies  itself  with  it ;  or  (3)  whether  it  is  co-ordinate 
with  it,  and  that  thus  related,  both  together  consti- 
tute the  actual  activity.  Before  the  enquiry  into  any 
special  inspiration  of  men,  governing  their  utterances 
and  their  deeds,  can  be  satisfactorily  made,  these 
questions  must  first  be  answered.  The  problem  per- 
haps may  be  more  concretely  stated  and  more  readily 
understood  by  examining  Christian  prayer  as  to  its 
conditions  and  the  mode  of  response.  Such  prayer 
may  be,  either  that  the  Divine  mind  will  so  adapt  its 
providential  treatment  as  to  fit  the  particular  case  In 
the  way  of  response,  as  when  one  prays  to  have  an 
impending  calamity  averted  ;  or,  in  a  case  widely  dif- 
ferent, that  the  Divine  Spirit  will  give  us  light  to  see 


INSPIRATION.  21 3 

the  right  way  in  a  question  of  duty,  and  the  strength 
to  follow  it.  How  is  such  a  prayer  as  this  latter 
responded  to?  How  does  the  Holy  Spirit  enlighten 
and  strengthen  us  ?  We  may  indeed  conceive  that 
light  and  insight  may  reach  us  through  providential 
means,  by  some  aid  applied  ab  extra,  by  means  of 
which  the  clouds  are  dispelled,  and  the  mental  vision 
clarified.  But  the  question  is,  if  there  is  any  mystical 
influence  beside  and  apart  from  this,  how  does  it 
operate  ?  Could  we  understand  it,  indeed,  it  would 
cease  to  be  mystical,  and  was  only  provisionally  so 
called.  It  is  because  by  the  former  method  what  oc- 
curs cannot  be  fully  explained  that  we  believe  that  the 
pathway  of  the  intelligible  terminates  and  lands  us  in 
the  mystical,  where  we  believe  but  know  not ;  the 
internal  faith  thus  coalescing  with  the  external  and 
together  with  it  becoming  assurance.  Many,  indeed, 
assert  this  alleged  inward  assurance  to  be  a  delusion, 
and  that  our  experience  is  explicable  without  any  such 
supposition  of  the  mystical ;  while  others  again,  and 
Christians  as  such,  assert  the  fact  of  a  unique  experi- 
ence, and  that  light  and  strength  have  reached  them 
through  a  pathway  which  their  intelligence  cannot 
follow. 

The  question  will  then  arise, — Is  this  spiritual  in- 
fluence direct  upon  the  will  imparting  energy,  or 
direct  upon  the  feeling  or  emotion  affording  stimulus, 
or  direct  upon  the  thinking  principle,  intensifying  its 
vivid  action  and  bringing  into  play  powers  ordinarily 
dormant,  and  through  this  process  giving  to  the  ideal 
end  such  attractiveness  as  supplies  stimulus  and 
arouses  energy,  in  which  latter  case  both  thought  and 
action  have  their  accompaniment  of  feeling  ?    Which- 


214  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

ever  be  the  method,  the  mystical  activity  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  is  assumed. 

This  is  a  very  delicate  psychological  inquiry.  But 
we  may  readily  discard  the  first  form  of  the  question, 
for  we  know  of  no  such  thing  as  the  human  will  apart 
from  thought  and  emotion  ; — the  will  being  simply 
the  name  of  the  entire  synthesis  which  constitutes  the 
human  being,  quoad  any  possible  activity,  i.  e.,  inter- 
nal resolve  and  external  movement.  It  is  the  focus- 
sing of  the  entire  background  of  human  character, 
the  concentration  of  the  entire  groups  of  involuntary 
proclivities  and  ideal  presentations,  intricately  related, 
and  the  mark  for  the  time  being  of  some  upturning 
phase  of  the  character,  and  sometimes  the  mark  of 
the  strongest  element  in  all  this  group.  It  is  an 
energy,  indeed,  and  the  spring  of  force,  but  it  does  not 
act,  or  is  not  acted  upon,  as  an  abstraction.  It  has  no 
definition,  except  as  the  expression  of  this  same  con- 
geries of  tendencies  and  presentations,  and  therefore 
can  only  be  reached  through  them.  Otherwise  it 
would  have  no  alternatives  and  no  freedom,  and  must 
fall  into  the  same  necessity  as  reigns  among  the  purely 
physical  forces. 

The  question  then  arises, — Is  the  mystical  influence 
exerted  upon  it  through  any  pure  feeling  or  emotion, 
or  upon  such  feeling  or  emotion  existing  in  combina- 
tion with  these  same  involuntary  tendencies  and  ideal 
presentations  ?  And  the  first  alternative  of  this  ques- 
tion, too,  we  may  on  the  same  grounds  reject,  for  we 
know  nothing  of  any  such  pure  feeling  or  emotion 
that  can  be  thus  entirely  abstracted.  These  only 
arise  in  combination  with  and  by  virtue  of  these  same 
spontaneous  tendencies  and  ideal  presentations.    Any 


INSPIRATION.  215 

emotion  must  have  an  object  which  has  been  framed 
by  the  mind,  or  exists  already  in  habitual  conscious- 
ness. The  simplest  feeling  we  have,  of  physical  com- 
placency, (we  are  not  alluding  to  sensation?)  depends 
upon  the  state  of  the  organism,  whose  healthful  flow 
or  change  accomplishes  this  feeling  of  pleasure.  And 
the  purest  and  highest  form  of  emotion,  that  of  love 
to  God,  depends  upon  a  complex  process  through 
which  the  mind  has  consciously  passed,  and  reached  a 
certain  idea  of  God,  making  him  an  object  of  love  ; 
or  else  upon  a  naive  process,  which,  when  analyzed, 
is  shown  to  be  also  complex.  Any  mystical  influence 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  upon  the  will  must  reach  it,  there- 
fore, in  and  through  this  group  of  physical  proclivities, 
some  of  which  have  crystallized  into  habits  ;  or  in  and 
through  the  mental  or  thought  movement  by  which 
ideal  presentations,  which  are  motives,  are  framed, 
and  can  only  reach  feeling  or  emotion  through  one  or 
both  of  these  media. 

Ordinarily  we  can  follow  with  our  understanding, 
and  explain  the  means  by  which  our  physical  proclivi- 
ties are  reached  from  without,  and  although  we  may 
not  yet  be  able  to  trace  them  exhaustively,  yet  we  do 
not  think  it  to  be  beyond  the  power  of  the  under- 
standing so  to  trace  them.  To  be  mystical,  however, 
they  must,  by  the  definition,  elude  such  power,  not 
only  now  but  ever,  while  we  are  related  to  the  physi- 
cal universe  through  our  present  organism.  We  may 
think,  then,  that  such  proclivities  may  be  weakened  or 
strengthened  by  the  Holy  Spirit  directly,  or  indirectly, 
— indirectly,  when  through  and  by  means  of  changes 
wrought  upon  our  mental  movements,  through  which 
the  ideal  presentations  come.     If  directly,    then  the 


2i6  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

spiritual  influence  must  be  thought  as  acting  upon  us 
irrespective  of  our  moral  freedom  ;  which  is  against 
the  analogy  of  all  spiritual,  ethical,  and  religious 
change,  hitherto  maintained,  and  we  must  think  the 
will  to  be  reached  through  our  lower  nature  purely, 
rather  than  through  our  higher  and  finer  spiritual  ca- 
pacities. (The  physical  and  the  ethical  are  here 
divorced  :  and  our  philosophy  has  become  materialis- 
tic or  purely  idealistic,  which  amounts  to  the  same 
thing.)  For  illustration  :  it  is  no  conquest  over  a 
perverted  physical  appetite  which  is  reached  through 
the  weakening  of  that  appetite  through  some  mystical 
influence ;  while  it  is  a  conquest,  in  a  true  sense, 
which  is  reached  through  some  vivification  of  an  ideal 
presentation,  having  higher  attractiveness,  whereby 
we  draw  away  from  and  resist  the  physical  appetite. 
It  is  in  this  region,  then,  that  the  influence  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  is  to  be  sought ;  and  the  will  is  reached, 
influenced,  and  strengthened  through  an  illumination 
made  in  the  realm  of  ideas.  And,  as  before,  any 
such  illumination,  or  contrary  darkening,  is  always, 
from  the  law  of  all  existence,  accompanied  by  feeling 
or  emotion,  more  or  less  vivid,  clear,  and  definable. 

Even  in  the  case  of  the  impartation  of  the  cha- 
rismata, so  far  as  it  is  definable,  the  influence  upon  the 
men  so  wrought  upon  was  not  upon  their  physical 
being  direct,  making  them  mere  mouth-pieces,  or  pas- 
sive channels  ;  but  operated  upon  their  higher  nature, 
and  by  some  exaltation  of  the  mental  faculties  above 
their  normal  state.  We  cannot  but  think  that  what 
they  said  or  did  was  accompanied  by  intelligence, 
delight,  and  thankfulness. 

How  then  can  we  distinguish  between  the  not  un- 


INSPIRATION.  217 

usual  exaltation  of  the  mental  powers,  to  which  we 
give,  figuratively,  the  name  inspiration,  and  this  ex- 
traordinary influence  which  we  refer  to  the  Holy 
Spirit  ?  What  new  element  is  present  in  the  last,  not 
necessarily  found  in  the  first  ?  Or  is  it  a  difference 
only  of  degree  ? 

Man's  is  an  animal  soul  which  has  become  a 
spiritual  soul.  By  some  impartation,  which  we  may 
figure  as  an  inbreathing,  it  has  been  irradiated  from 
the  realm  of  pure  spirit.  We  trace  in  it  the  higher 
ideas, — the  absolute  moral  distinction, — the  outline  of 
the  harmonious  commonwealth,  to  reach  which  is  the 
perennial  motive-spring  of  its  free  spiritual  activity, — 
the  causal  relation  governing  all  its  inner  movements, 
— and  the  passion  of  love  seeking  ever  the  supreme 
and  sufficient  object.  All  these  are  inexplicable  but 
from  the  idea  of  God,  or  rather,  in  their  synthesis 
constitute  or  imply  such  idea  ;  and  man,  in  spite  of  all 
disavowals,  acts  as  though  God  exists.  Not  all  his 
movements,  then,  are  explicable  from  determinations 
from  the  physical  universe  reaching  him  through  his 
sensations,  and  wrought  up  into  knowledge  by  a  syn- 
thetic process.  He  has  already  in  these  irradiations 
a  mystical  ground  for  his  knowledge.  Our  materialis- 
tic philosophers  have  faltered  and  failed  to  explain  his 
movements,  ignoring  such  mystical  ground.  He  is 
through  this  related  to  a  realm  above  nature,  and 
which  nature's  figurative  language  fails  to  describe. 
These  ideas  then,  regarded  as  illuminations  in  and  of 
the  animal  soul,  exist  for  human  consciousness  in  dif- 
ferent degrees  of  clearness,  and  hence  in  the  same 
individual  may  be  made  more  distinct,  may  be  fresh- 
ened, and  as  furnishing  motives,  intensified.     Some- 


218  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

times  they  are  so  freshened  by  means  which,  to  a 
certain  extent  we  can  follow  with  our  understanding, 
and  sometimes,  in  our  experience,  they  are  freshened 
by  means  which  we  cannot  so  follow.  If  they  cannot 
be  so  followed  they  must  be  referred  to  unknown  re- 
lations, to  the  SvvafAiS  vifnffrov  working  undiscoverably, 
or  the  Holy  Spirit.  And  even  in  the  former  case,  in 
tracing  them  back  to  their  source,  we  may  still  find 
something  inexplicable,  and  hence  that  even  they  have 
become  part  of  our  structure  through  the  Holy 
Spirit  (which  is  virtually  asserted  in  the  narrative  in 
the  book  Genesis). 

Thus  a  prayer  for  light  and  strength  may  be  an- 
swered through  the  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  upon 
these  higher  elements  of  the  human  structure,  these 
ideas,  in  which  the  spiritual  element  is  paramount, 
even  though  they  have  been  conditional  and  aroused 
into  consciousness  by  physical  determinations.  We 
may  think  them  wrought  upon  immediately,  and  thus 
their  attractive  power  enhanced  ;  or  else  as  wrought 
upon  mediately  through  a  similar  illumination  which 
has  reached  the  minds  of  other  men,  whereby  these 
become  mediating  influences  which  react  upon  our 
own  mental  movements,  freshening  these  ideas,  and 
making  them  more  powerful  determining  principles. 
The  former  and  immediate  process  is  the  ordinary  ac- 
tion of  the  Holy  Spirit  upon  the  spiritual  soul  direct. 
The  latter  is  through  an  illumination  of  the  minds 
of  other  men.  We  have  then  to  consider  if  and 
how  this  last  is  extraordinary,  in  order  to  vindicate 
for  it  the  higher  use  of  the  term  inspiration,  and 
claim  trustworthiness  or  authority  for  their  utter- 
ances.    In  either  case  the  influence  is  thought  as  mys- 


INSPIRATION.  219 

tical.  Is,  then,  the  distinction  one  of  kind  or  degree  ? 
This  influence  upon  the  mind  of  the  ordinary  Chris- 
tian results  in  no  mistake  and  is  infallible  so  far  as  it 
freshens  the  idea  of  God,  and  makes  him  an  object  of 
love,  or  as  it  makes  more  vivid  the  distinction  between 
moral  good  and  evil.  But  the  same  faculties  by  which 
we  apprehend  these  may  be  so  elevated  into  a  greater 
light,  and  their  internal  insight  so  sharpened  as  not 
only  to  intensify  the  brightness  of  the  main  and  essen- 
tial outline  of  Divine  truth,  but  to  fill  up  the  same 
with  ramifications  and  relations  unseen  by  the  ordinary 
vision,  yet  possible  to  be  recognized  by  it,  and  enab- 
ling it  to  understand  the  whole  more  rightly ;  and  in 
some  cases  with  elaborations  of  the  eternal  truth,  whose 
relations  to  the  rest  the  ordinary  vision  can  only  dimly 
descry.  Such  illumination  of  the  field  of  vision,  and 
correspondent  opening  of  the  insight,  Christians  are 
accustomed  to  think,  have  taken  place  in  the  minds  of 
prophets,  evangelists,  and  apostles,  whereby  they  have 
seen  Divine  truth  with  closer  vision  than  the  rest  of 
us ;  and  so  we  think  that  their  authentic  utterances 
are  the  fruit  of  such  vision,  and  hence  are  looked  upon 
as  inspired  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  That  such  a  thing 
should  be,  we  have  seen,  is  not  out  of  analogy  with 
God's  ordinary  means  of  revealing  himself,  is  only 
another  step  in  advance,  after  those  previously  made, 
urging  his  creature  towards  the  ideal  perfection,  and 
is  absolutely  needful  for  it. 

But  further  questions  are  at  once  disclosed.  We 
have  still  to  inquire  (1)  into  the  subjective  conditions 
which  make  such  extraordinary  illumination  possible 
for  any  man  ;  (2)  still  more  closely  into  the  method 
of  the  mental  movement  so  accomplished ;  and  (3) 


220  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

into  the  degrees  of  susceptibility  and  ability  on  the 
part  of  ordinary  Christians  to  follow  this  mental 
movement  of  the  inspired  ones,  and  rightly  to  appre- 
hend its  outcome  and  meaning.  We  hold  that  no 
dispassionate  student  can  study  the  writings  which 
constitute  the  Christian  Scriptures  without  concluding 
that,  in  the  main,  they  differ  so  greatly  from  all  other 
human  productions  as  to  require  distinct  explanation. 
This  difference  grows  so  marked,  the  more  they  are 
looked  into,  as  to  give  new  reason  to  suppose  that  an 
unusual  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  was  needful  for 
their  composition.  To  vindicate  this  thesis  and  bring 
out  these  riches  is  beyond  our  present  task.1  We  only 
make  use  of  these  writings  here  to  find  aid  in  discover- 
ing the  nature  of  the  extraordinary  mental  condition 
which  they  display  or  prove,  and  also  how  it  must  be 
regarded  by  and  influence  ourselves. 

1  We  venture,  however,  in  this  connection  to  note  the  following  : — Some  of 
the  authors  of  the  New  Testament  were  men  of  only  ordinary  mental  capacity, 
judging  by  what  they  have  left ;  yet  we  find,  sometimes,  utterances  whose  full 
meaning  tasks  the  powers  of  the  trained  intellect,  and  is  reached  by  a  pro- 
longed mental  process.  We  can  hardly  think  that  such  men  could  have 
reached  a  depth  of  thought  so  profound  by  their  own  natural  powers  simply. 
These  expressions,  so  naive,  suggest  that  the  mental  vision  has  been  preter- 
naturally  sharpened.  If  such  result  had  been  reached  by  natural  thought- 
movement,  simply,  they  would  have  entered  upon  an  explication  of  it.  For 
instance, — St.  James'  works  (Ch.  i.,  v.  iS),  "  that  we  should  be  a  kind  of  first- 
fruits  of  his  creatures,"  in  which  is  contained  the  whole  Dhilosophy  of  regen- 
eration,— that  the  xri6i$  itself  is  reached  through  the  ethical  perfection  of 
chnstianized  humanity. 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

INSPIRATION     OF     SELECTED     MEN, PRELUDE     TO     THE 

INQUIRY. 

Antecedent  to  and  apart  from  any  special  en- 
lightenment afforded  to  particular  men,  giving  knowl- 
edge of  himself,  by  the  Ruler  of  the  universe,  the 
tokens  of  his  existence  and  character  are  ever  such 
as  to  be  variously  interpreted,  and  thus  He  is  kept 
within  the  region  of  faith.  The  human  mind  in 
its  naive  procedure  passes  through  various  phases, 
and  that,  too,  in  an  order  not  uniform,  indeed,  but 
sufficiently  so  to  admit  of  characterization.  This  is 
the  truth  of  Compte's  celebrated  classification,  into 
the  religious,  metaphysical,  and  positive  methods.  In 
the  first,  the  thinking  subject,  judging  from  his  own 
constant  experience  that  any  change  wrought  in  exter- 
nal nature  is  referable  to  some  purpose,  and  requires 
previous  formation  of  this  purpose,  refers  all  the  opera- 
tions of  nature,  producing  results  which  he  can  feel 
and  understand,  to  an  intelligent  designer  like  him- 
self, to  self-conscious  will,  or  personality ;  and  being 
as  yet  unable  from  his  faulty  knowledge  or  inadequate 
reflection  to  unify  these  movements  of  nature,  imagines 
a  multiplicity  of  conscious  personalities,  more  or  less 
complete  abstractions  from  himself,  and  endowed  with 
various  powers,  and  having  distinct  functions.  This 
is  the  religious  stadium ;  and  the  objects  of  worship 

221 


222  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

in  this  are  thought  as  personal,  hence  attract  or  repel, 
and  may  be  conciliated.  In  this  stadium  some  acuter 
intellect  may  have  the  impulse  and  some  power  of  uni- 
fication, and  endeavor  or  attain  a  Monistic  solution,  but 
this  affects  but  feebly  the  popular  mind,  which  ever 
runs  back  to  the  naive  Polytheistic  inference.  With 
advancing  knowledge  and  deeper  reflection  filtrating 
to  the  multitudes,  the  Polytheistic  solution  at  length 
gives  way :  the  thinking  mind  either  passes  con- 
sciously through  stadia  of  scepticism,  (and  the  common 
mind  following  practically  does  the  same),  or  else  holds 
to  or  amends  its  own  unifying  philosophic  scheme.  Its 
solutions  formulated  are  often  and  naturally  imma- 
ture, being  founded  upon  imperfect  science  of  nature, 
and  incomplete  introspection  ;  yet,  impatient  after  seif- 
consistency,  it  supplies  speculatively  and  tentatively 
whatever  is  still  needed  to  fill  any  hiatus  in  its 
scheme:  and  we  have  a  theory  of  the  universe  ap- 
parently self-consistent  and  for  a  time  satisfactory. 
This  is  the  metaphysical  stadium.  With  the  advance 
of  knowledge,  and  as  the  result  of  acuter  thinking,  the 
weakness  of  the  Polytheistic  scheme  is  clearly  seen,  it 
is  inwardly  disintegrated  and  ready  to  crumble.  In 
the  place  of  this  is  forming  meanwhile  a  thought- 
scheme,  which  has  hypothetical  elements,  however, 
and  whose  method  is  a  priori,  even  though  the  facts 
to  be  unified  multiply  and  are  observed  more  closely, 
and  thus  is  anticipated  in  degree  the  positive  method. 
Thus  we  have,  for  instance,  the  schemes  of  the  Greek 
philosophers.  The  method  of  Aristotle  particularly 
is  neither  purely  metaphysical,  nor  positive,  but  a 
mingling  of  the  two.  A  third  class  of  thinkers  arises 
in  due  time,  who  find  that  these  schemes,  however 


INSPIRA  TION  OF  SELECTED  MEN.         223 

seemingly  self-consistent,  are  no  stronger  than  their 
hypothetical  links,  who  note  that  facts  are  indubitable, 
and  when  rightly  understood  are  truths,  and  who  re- 
fuse to  fill  in  these  hiatus  with  hypotheses,  and  prefer 
to  build  upon  these  facts  alone.  They  question  na- 
ture, human  life,  and  human  acts  incessantly,  and 
declare  that  they  will  accept  nothing  as  true  that  is 
not  a  valid  inference  from  these.  This  is  the  positive 
stadhim. 

It  is  beyond  the  province  of  this  treatise  to  criticise 
these  schemes,  to  show  that  each  is  faulty  as  a  pure 
method,  and  that  the  ultimate  philosophy  will  rescue 
the  element  of  truth  in  each.  But  we  may  observe 
here  that  in  all  these  methods  the  human  observing 
and  thinking  powers  are  regarded  as  trustworthy,  and 
hence  that  any  sceptical  stadium  discovers  its  own 
self-contradiction  and  is  quickly  abandoned.  Since  in 
all  three  the  same  implements  of  investigation  are 
used,  and  the  same  object-matter  is  regarded,  the 
coalescence  and  agreement  of  these  methods  are 
possible  and  inevitable,  and  sooner  or  later  their 
combination  will  reach  a  satisfying  result.  Already 
the  positivists  have  found  out  that  they  have  as- 
sumed metaphysical  principles, — the  metaphysicians 
avail  themselves  more  and  more  of  the  positive 
method,  and  have  an  increasing  respect  for  science  ; 
and  both  find  that  the  religious  inference  is  entitled 
to  respect,  and  has  to  be  dealt  with  and  incorporated 
into  their  schemes. 

That  an  analysis  of  human  consciousness  discovers 
the  idea  of  God,  or  a  Personal  First  Principle,  implicit 
within  it,  is  held  without  a  minimum  of  rational  doubt 
by  many  thinkers.     Probably  no  fact,  no  conclusion  is 


224  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

so  secure.  The  very  assaults  upon  it  confirm  it,  since 
they  move  according  to  the  law  of  causality  upon 
which  it  is  founded.  That  a  scrutiny  of  nature  con- 
firms instead  of  weakens  this  conclusion,  and  the  more 
as  nature  becomes  more  thoroughly  known,  is  just  as 
firmly  held.  For  many  minds,  no  rational  doubt  of 
this  is  possible.  But  doubts  do  come,  from  sources 
other  than  rational,  and  the  inborn  conviction  of  the 
human  mind,  when  expressed  in  words,  comes  to  be 
frequently  and  for  a  time  suspected,  though  it  never 
can  be  utterly  and  permanently  rejected.  Doubts 
come  through  the  region  of  feeling,  or  of  imagination, 
even  when  the  conviction  of  the  pure  thinking  principle 
is  unweakened  in  the  least.  And  moral  causes  supply 
doubts  and  weaken  faith.  The  fear  which  comes 
from  the  sense  of  moral  delinquency  starts  the  wish 
that  the  conviction  may  not  be  true.  And  thus  belief, 
or  the  conviction  relative  to  action,  fluctuates  in  its 
degrees.  The  stronger  it  is,  and  the  more  unmolested 
as  a  rational  conclusion,  the  more  in  accordance  with 
it  is  all  action  and  all  life-plans ;  and  conversely  the 
more  in  accordance  with  the  requirements  of  the 
moral  ideal  is  the  activity,  the  stronger  in  reality,  even 
though  unavowedly,  is  the  faith, — the  faith  that  the 
power  of  the  universe  is  righteous.  Faith  as  a  moral 
and  religious  spring  of  action  illumines  and  strength- 
ens faith  and  its  object,  as  a  mental  relation.  In  this 
way  the  knowledge  of  God  is  made  clearer,  and  men 
are  more  readily  lifted  above  the  assaults  of  doubt, 
though  never  escaping  them  altogether,  for  they  come 
in  their  subtlest  forms  only  to  the  soul  far  on  in  the 
perfecting  process,  and  through  them  does  faith  have 
formed  its  finest  fibres.     Faith  in  the  eternal  truth  is 


INSPIRA  TION  OF  SELECTED  MEN.         225 

thus  increased  by  knowledge,  and  by  obedience, 
by  man's  study  of  nature  and  of  himself,  and  by  the 
habitual  holding  for  true  and  acting  upon  his  moral 
and  religious  convictions.  It  is  all-important  that  the 
idea  of  God  should  be  rightly  and  clearly,  and,  if 
possible,  exhaustively  apprehended ; — what  the  First 
Principle  is  in  itself,  and  what  it  is  in  relation  to  the 
universe.  Only  as  man's  idea  of  God  is  truest  and 
highest  can  he  set  the  truest  and  highest  aim  for 
himself ;  and  since  God  does  reveal  himself  in  nature, 
exhibiting  his  thought,  and  in  the  human  soul  declaring 
his  will,  and  since  both  these  knowledges,  thus  far,  are 
seen  to  have  been  progressive,  we  should  be  able  to 
study  the  method  of  such  progress,  and  see  whether 
its  seeming  conditions  a  priori  have  been  met  by 
actual  correspondent  progress ;  whether,  in  plain 
words,  God  has  actually  done  what  his  character  must 
seem  to  require  ;  and,  if  there  is  anywhere  that  which 
defies  our  power  of  adjustment  and  abides  in  the 
region  of  mystery,  clearly  to  define  it,  or  rather 
sharply  to  bound  it  from  what  is  securely  known. 

We  have  seen  already  that  man's  actual  progress  as 
a  thinking  being,  and  as  a  moral  and  religious  being, 
has  been  under  conditions  which  we  can  retrace  with 
our  understanding,  and  also  under  conditions  which 
we  cannot  so  trace  ;  that  he  thus  appears  as  a  true 
universal,  having  as  well  mystical  relations  to  the 
spheres  of  existence  beyond  knowledge, — in  other 
words,  that  his  development  has  been  mediated  by 
the  Holy  Spirit ;  and  we  have  reached  the  conclusion 
that  this  mediating  influence  has  reached  his  will 
through  his  self-conscious  mind  when  it  has  been  a 
moral  and  righteous  one  :  while,  so  far  as  his  conscious- 

Vol.  II. 


226  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

ness  yet  falls  short  of  the  moral  stage,  it  has  reached 
him  through  his  psychical-physical  structure,  in  which 
lies  his  rudimentary  self-consciousness,  and  thus  may 
at  length  reach  his  self-conscious  mind  when  the  ex- 
terior  conditions  are  supplied.  Man's  moral  condition 
and  progress,  to  be  of  worth,  to  be  moral  at  all,  must 
be  free,  and  can  only  be  such  by  the  superior  attract- 
iveness of  some  ideal  presentation  which  not  only 
satisfies  the  thought,  but  gratifies  his  strongest  and 
most  blissful  feeling.  The  Holy  Spirit,  then,  reaches 
man's  willad  extra  and  ab  intra  (i)  by  illumining  the 
truth,  and  providing  for  its  external  presentation  in 
its  comparative  integrity,  and  (2)  by  preparing  the 
receptivity  for  its  apprehension  in  purifying  and  invig- 
orating the  faculties  which  are  to  apprehend  it, — 
which  two  processes  presuppose  and  condition  each 
other.  When  Christians  pray  to  be  guided  into  all 
truth,  they  mean  not  only  that  the  external  conditions 
for  its  presentation  shall  be  provided,  but  that  inward 
supervision  and  guidance  may  take  place  whereby 
they  may  more  readily  apprehend  it.  The  subjective 
conditio  sine  que  non  for  such  inward  guidance  when 
one  prays  is  faith,  or  moral  and  religious  obedience, 
which  removes  the  impediments  in  the  way  of  the 
vision  which  is  to  become  clearer. 

But  the  knowledge  of  God  is  not  reached  by  pure 
intuition,  though  all  knowledge  supplied  ab  extra  may 
have  for  its  final  cause  to  bring  about  such  intuition. 
It  is  fed  by  the  knowledge  to  be  had  at  the  time  and 
place.  And  special  knowledge,  or  opportunities  for 
knowledge,  may  be  providentially  provided.  We  may 
grow  in  such  knowledge  not  only  by  the  study  of  nature 
and  of  ourselves,  but  by  the  study  of  the  movements 


INSPIRA  TION  OF  SELECTED  MEN.         227 

and  the  results  of  the  movements  of  other  minds  ; 
and  it  is  not  against  analogy,  and  may  be  thought  to 
be  needful  at  critical  times  for  man's  further  progress, 
that  other  minds  should  be  especially  enlightened, 
and  bring  their  results  to  bear  upon  our  own.  If 
there  be  a  mystical  influence  upon  the  human  mind 
at  all,  it  must  admit  of  degrees.  The  evidence  of  its 
ordinary  working  is,  Christians  declare,  a  particular, 
experience,  over  and  above  their  common  experience  ; 
and  if  this  conclusion  be  valid,  we  can  draw  no  sharp 
line  limiting  the  possibility  and  extent  of  such  mysti- 
cal influence.  It  must  depend  upon  the  needs  of  the 
situation  as  envisaged  by  God  and  included  in  his 
providential  plan.  The  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
in  ordinary  Christian  experience  is  such,  notwithstand- 
ing all  fluctuations,  as  to  illumine  the  truth  and  pre- 
serve from  error  in  a  certain  limited  range  and  de- 
gree ;  and  it  is  entirely  analogous  that,  if  the  need  of 
it  exists  for  man's  onward  progress,  it  should  at  times 
transcend  this  ordinary  range  and  degree,  and  protect 
from  error  so  far  as  is  required  for  the  immediate  pur- 
pose. This,  Christians  think,  has  been  done  for  se- 
lected ones,  so  that  their  utterances  are  telescopes 
through  which  we  reach  a  nearer  vision  of  the  truth, 
many  of  whose  outlines  we  have  already  clearly  seen, 
and  which  conducts  even  these  to  their  unifying  cen- 
tre, and  fills  the  whole  field  of  vision  with  ramifica- 
tions. This  illumination  by  the  Holy  Spirit  may  thus 
exist  for  certain  ones  in  such  degree  as  to  free  them, 
so  far  as  is  the  providential  intent,  from  the  mis- 
takes into  which,  otherwise,  the  human  mind  is  not 
protected  from  falling.  If,  then,  God's  closest,  clearest, 
and  dearest  manifestation  of  his  innermost  being  be 


228  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

through  the  Incarnation  of  the  Eternal  Son  and  the 
knowledge  of  his  earthly  career,  this  knowledge  must 
come  to  us  in  a  trustworthy  manner  ;  and  whatever 
other  truth  is  needed  to  establish  the  new  relation 
to  the  Divine  Principle  now  rendered  possible, 
must  in  like  way  be  supplied.  By  what  means  this 
may  come  to  pass,  and  what  operation  is  wrought 
upon  the  consciousness  of  these  selected  ones,  whereby 
such  immunity  from  error  becomes  possible,  is  now  the 
problem  for  enquiry. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

THE    INSPIRATION    OF    SELECTED    MEN. 

An  inquiry  into  the  nature  and  the  method  of  this 
special  elevation  of  the  mental  faculties,  and  conse- 
quent illumination  of  the  truth,  will  require  that  we 
shall  consider,  first,  the  end  that  is  to  be  attained  ; 
and  secondly,  that  we  shall  examine  the  utterances  of 
the  men  of  whom  this  is  claimed,  to  discover  what  is 
distinctive  and  peculiar,  in  order  to  determine,  thirdly, 
what  modification  of  human  consciousness  must  be 
thought  to  make  this  possible. 

The  object  in  view,  as  displayed  by  our  method,  is 
the  accurate  presentation  of  the  truth, — not  of  all 
truth,  but  of  such  as  is  needful  for  the  unique  revela- 
tion of  himself  which  God  has  made,  or  may  make, 
in  addition  to  all  previous  revelation.  It  cannot  be 
of  all  truth,  of  all  existing  relations,  for  this  it  is  need- 
less to  claim,  and  it  is  manifest  that  it  has  not  been 
accomplished.  This  would  be  no  less  than  to  trans- 
fer the  Divine  consciousness  of  the  objective  universe 
into  the  human,  or  to  make  the  human  organ  to 
transcend  its  methods  and  the  manner  of  its  evolu- 
tion, and  competent  to  reflect  entirely  the  Divine 
mind.  And  it  must  be  taken  for  granted  that  there 
is  an  exhaustless  reserve  of  possibilities  in  the  Divine 
mind  which  may  by  successive  steps  become  realities 
or  new  relations.     Besides,  not  all  the  secrets  of  the 

229 


230  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

Divine  relations  to  the  existing  universe  as  a  system 
can  be  thus  forecasted,  since  these,  not  to  transcend 
the  human  faculties,  unravel  themselves  in  a  series  to 
human  apprehension.  And  there  is  nothing  in  the 
utterances  of  the  men  concerning  whom  this  inspiration 
is  claimed  which  indicates  their  possession  of  universal 
knowledge  or  their  claim  to  possess  it.  At  times  they 
confess  the  imperfection  of  their  own  enlightenment, 
showing  thus  that  what  they  have  is  limited  and  de- 
termined by  the  particular  end  in  view.  The  illumi- 
nation, therefore,  must  respect  such  end  and  be 
guided  by  it. 

Primarily  the  end  of  the  Christian  revelation  is  that 
of  the  Divine  character,  of  the  Divine  heart.  It  is 
not  of  the  Divine  existence,  for  the  revelation  of  that 
is  perennial,  and  nothing  subsequent  could  add  to  the 
clearness  or  the  force  of  it.  It  is,  rather,  so  to  define 
that  existence  as  to  show  that  it  contains  within  itself 
the  possibility  of  the  Divine  Love,  and  to  give  assur- 
ance of  the  same  to  the  simplest  capacity  by  bringing 
an  illustration  of  it  within  the  sphere  of  sense  and  im- 
agination. The  self-limitation  of  the  Divine  by  taking 
the  form  of  the  human,  the  identification  of  the  Divine 
with  the  lot  and  the  welfare  of  the  human,  are  to  be 
taken  as  illustration  of  the  Divine  Love.  Secondarily, 
the  end  in  view  is  the  extension  of  this  knowledge 
beyond  the  first  form  of  apprehension  ;  in  order  to 
which  means  must  be  provided  whereby  this  knowl- 
edge shall  be  preserved  unimpaired  in  its  integrity, 
and  made  practical  by  influencing  human  character  and 
human  activity.  The  illumination  therefore  must  be 
determined  by  these  purposes. 

To  use  other  language, — the  object  of  the  Divine 


INSPIRA  TION  OF  SELECTED  MEN.         231 

inspiration  of  prophets,  evangelists,  and  apostles  is  to 
prepare  the  conditions  for  the  revelation  to  the  human 
minds  which  may  follow  of  God  in  Christ,  and  of  such 
further  relations  as  shall  make  this  knowledge  sub- 
serve its  purpose  upon  the  individual  and  upon  the 
human  race.  This  requires  that  the  minds  thus  en- 
lightened shall  utter  themselves  in  such  form  as  will 
convey  and  hand  down  a  trustworthy  testimony  to  the 
facts  which  constitute  the  foundation  of  this  revela- 
tion, and  also  show  what  is  built  upon  it,  and  what 
may  be  safely  built.  Through  whatever  human 
vehicles  this  information  may  pass,  and  whatever 
modifications  it  may  receive,  the  end  in  view  would  be 
missed  were  there  not  some  providential  guiding  to 
ensure  the  correct  presentation  of  its  essential  features. 
The  life  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  his  own  utterances  con- 
cerning himself,  must  be  preserved  with  such  accuracy 
that  the  intended  revelation  of  God  therein  shall  not  be 
dissipated  and  fail  to  reach  its  mark.  And  we  may 
also  think  it  to  be  required  that  these  minds  so  enlight- 
ened shall  also  possess  the  wisdom  and  foresight  to 
devise  means  whereby  this  knowledge,  with  a  minimum 
danger  of  impairment,  may  be  extended  to  the  coming 
generations ;  and  also  to  carry  out  their  Master's  in- 
tent in  founding  an  Institution,  with  symbolic  rites, 
and  itself  a  symbol, — to  frame  the  Christian  Church 
and  start  it  forward  in  its  career.  And  we  may  think, 
likewise,  that  all  this  would  require  special  illumina- 
tion to  see  clearly  the  application  of  the  law  of  love 
to  the  existing  situation,  to  enshrine  in  appropriate 
maxims  the  details  of  moral  and  religious  duty. 

To  give  them  the  true  knowledge  of  Christ,  to  elab- 
orate such   doctrine  as  is  implicit  in  the  fact  of  the 


232  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

Incarnation,  to  round  it  out  into  such  a  system 
that  its  self-consistency  may  be  discovered,  or  to  sup- 
ply the  material  for  such  after-procedure,  to  elaborate 
and  start  forward  the  Christian  Church,  to  give  such 
precepts  for  Christian  duty  as  are  required  now  that 
the  whole  plan  of  any  individual  life  must  be  deter- 
mined by  the  end  which  God  in  this  new  revelation  of 
himself  has  set  for  human  conduct  and  endeavor, — 
these  are  the  ends,  purposes,  final  cause  of  the  special 
enlightenment  of  these  men. 

In  setting  forth  all  this  as  the  purpose  of  such  In- 
spiration, there  at  once  arises  the  enquiry  how  to  en- 
sure that  the  objective  presentation  of  the  truth  thus 
secured  shall  be  rightly  apprehended,  seeing  that  we 
can  never,  in  the  concrete,  divorce  such  objective 
presentation  from  the  subjective  holding.  It  is  only 
truth  as  held  in  and  by  some  mind,  and  has  no  ex- 
istence out  of  such  mind ;  and  the  question  arises 
whether  any  objective  formula  is  adequate  to  arouse 
a  similar  apprehension  and  comprehension  of  the 
same  in  all  minds  approaching  it  ;  and  if  not,  what,  if 
any,  provision  exists  or  can  be  had  for  correcting  any 
such  idiosyncrasies  ?  But  this  question  will  be  more 
conveniently  and  adequately  discussed  after  we  have 
considered  the  nature  of  the  Inspiration  itself. 

It  seems  apparent  that  the  kind  and  degree  of  the 
spiritual  influence  will  be  determined  in  each  case  by 
the  immediate  purpose  ;  and  that  if  we  could  separate 
clearly  these  purposes  we  could  more  easily  define 
various  kinds  of  Inspiration.  For  instance,  were  the 
purpose  only  and  simply  to  give  and  convey  a  correct 
narrative  of  facts,  it  would  only  be  needful  that  the 
faculties  should  be  so  sharpened  as  to  bear  perfectly 


INSPIRATION  OF  SELECTED  MEN.         233 

correct  witness  of  the  facts,  so  far  as  they  were  in- 
tended to  influence  ;  and  to  be  a  perfect  memory  to 
give  them  to  those  who  are  to  receive  information  of 
them  at  second-hand.  Even  for  such  an  end  alone, 
considering  the  unreliability  of  human  observation 
and  testimony  and  the  treachery  of  ordinary  memory, 
a  stronger  and  more  immediate  mystical  influence 
upon  the  faculties  than  the  ordinary  one  would  be 
required.  In  such  influence,  however,  minute  dis- 
crepancies, affecting  other  than  the  main  intent,  would 
be  still  possible,  and  need  not  be  guarded  against. 
Again,  were  the  end  clearly  separable  from  any  other 
end  to  elaborate  a  coherent  system  of  doctrine  of  the 
Incarnation,  it  would  be  only  needful  that  the  ordi- 
nary mental  grasp  should  be  so  widened  and  strength- 
ened that  no  essential  relation  should  escape  it,  and 
that  the  whole  dialectic  should  appear  in  its  unity. 
Here  the  task  is  harder,  the  requirements  severer, 
and  it  becomes  obvious  that  such  scrutiny  as  would 
miss  nothing,  nor  see  any  thing  dimly,  and  distort 
nothing,  would  require  such  vigilance  that  we  should 
be  loth  to  think  it  of  any  natural  intellect,  however 
comprehensive.  Here  the  elevation  of  the  faculties 
and  illumination  of  the  truth,  which  in  an  inferior 
degree  exist  in  all  Christians,  must  for  the  end  re- 
quired receive  special  increments,  and  be  a  new  gift 
and  guiding  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  So  far 
these  two  kinds  of  illumination  are  analogous  to  ordi- 
nary human  mental  processes.  The  faculties  of  ob- 
servation, memory,  imagination,  understanding,  and 
reasoning  are  in  use  :  yet,  were  our  notion  of  the  ends 
of  Inspiration  confined  to  these  alone,  we  should  still 
claim  that  a  Divine  guidance  and  overruling  of  these 


234  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

human  faculties,  which  still  need  not  transcend  their 
proper  methods,  is  required  for  the  intended  result, 
seeing  that  this  must  not  be  rendered  problematical, 
as  it  would  by  their  ordinary  use  alone  ;  and  seeing, 
likewise,  that  the  examination  of  the  utterances  of 
these  men  cnves  evidence  that  their  mental  movement 
and  method  have  been  unusual,  and  only  explicable 
upon  the  hypothesis  of  such  special  overruling,  which 
indeed  they  claim  for  themselves,  and  which  by  almost 
universal  Christian  consent  has  been  accorded  them. 

But  the  evidence  is  said  to  be  before  us  that  theirs 
was  a  still  more  exalted  state  of  mind  than  was  re- 
quired for  all  this.  The  two  purposes  and  require- 
ments above  alluded  to  cannot  be  treated  thus  sepa- 
rately, since  they  exist  more  or  less  in  combination. 
The  narrative  of  facts  is  mingled  with  the  presenta- 
tion of  doctrine,  suggesting  thus  that  the  mystical  in- 
fluence and  illumination  are  not  of  special  faculties 
merely,  leaving  the  others  to  work  in  their  ordinary 
method  and  degree,  but  of  the  whole  mind  and  atti- 
tude of  consciousness.  We  see  the  tokens  here  and 
there  of  some  profounder  change, — the  tokens  of 
what  may  be  called  the  prophetic  consciousness,  in 
which  the  mind  seems  to  have  passed  beyond  the 
mere  memory  of  facts  and  the  logical  evolution  of 
doctrine,  and  to  range  over  a  wider  region  ;  or  more 
correctly,  perhaps,  to  have  sunk  to  a  deeper  point  of 
view,  in  which  the  whole  method  of  the  mental  move- 
ment is  changed,  in  which  the  relations  of  space  and 
time  give  place  to  more  purely  spiritual  relations,  in 
which  past  and  future  dissolve  into  one  present,  and 
what  is  intuited  is  not  the  chronological  sequence  of 
events,  or  the  logical  sequence  of  doctrines,  but  the 


INSPIRA  TION  OF  SELECTED  MEN.         235 

dialectic  of  the  idea,  the  ever-present  law  of  the  evo- 
lution of  events  and  their  spiritual  and  unifying  sig- 
nificance. To  express  this,  language  furnishes  only 
figurative  expressions,  and  the  mind  struggles  after 
images,  the  inadequacy  of  which  it  is  itself  conscious 
of,  and  which  only  imperfectly  convey  its  meaning, 
and  changes  often  one  set  of  images  for  another  as 
possibly  more  successful.  Unless  we  could  seat  our- 
selves at  the  point  of  view  of  men  in  this  state,  there 
must  often  seem  a  kind  of  incoherence  in  what  they 
saw  and  what  they  say,  since  its  law  is  neither  associ- 
ative nor  logical  ;  and  criticism  pauses  in  doubt.  In 
nearly  every  one  of  the  writers  for  whom  Inspiration 
is  claimed  there  are  occasional  tokens  that  they  are 
or  have  been  in  such  a  state  of  mind,  and  in  some 
cases,  perhaps,  permanently  so.  Such  an  unusual 
state  of  consciousness  requires,  if  possible,  to  be  ex- 
plained, so  far  at  least  as  to  see  whether  it  is  in  itself 
other  and  higher  in  kind  than  that  which  otherwise 
has  been  or  may  be  reached.  What  is  meant  here 
may  perhaps  be  rendered  plainer  by  an  illustration. 

We  have  recorded  a  discourse  by  Jesus  Christ,  in 
which  He  describes  in  the  same  continuity  the  coming 
destruction  of  the  city  of  Jerusalem,  with  accompany- 
ing events,  and  also  the  physical  and  other  events  to 
constitute  or  be  attendant  upon  the  great  change  that 
is  to  come  over  the  earth  and  its  inhabitants  at  some 
critical  period  in  the  future.  The  connection  of  the 
two  seems  almost  arbitrary,  and  the  transition  so  ab- 
rupt as  to  lead  to  think  the  case  a  mere  one  of  anal- 
ogy ;  yet  the  unity  of  this  discourse  may  be  recog- 
nized and  admitted  by  considering  his  mind  at  the 
time  to  be  in  this  exalted  state,  which  we  have  de- 


236  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

nominated  the  prophetic  consciousness.  What  his 
mind  is  filled  with  is  the  evolution  of  the  idea  of 
Judgment,  which  he  sees  in  its  timeless  relations,  yet 
illustrates  by  concrete  imagery.  This  Judgment,  or 
discrimination  and  separation,  is  something  that  is 
going  on  perpetually.  The  contrast  between  moral 
good  and  evil  is  forever  manifested  in  overt  actions 
and  events,  and  sometimes  so  diametrically  as  to  ex- 
hibit all  the  beauty  and  deformity.  In  the  history  of 
the  individual  the  fluctuations  pass,  the  alternate  vic- 
tories and  defeats,  till  the  trend  or  assured  movement 
of  the  will  in  the  entire  synthesis  of  its  motives  is  de- 
termined and  fixed.  This  final  crisis  is  foreshadowed 
by  previous  ones  less  marked  and  entire.  And  so 
likewise  the  process  passes  in  the  larger  sphere  of 
communities,  nations,  peoples,  races,  and  the  entire 
humanity.  The  current  has  its  periods  of  crisis  or 
culmination,  when  one  tendency  or  the  other  sweeps 
aside  the  opposition  of  its  adversary,  terrible  events 
occur  in  the  conflict  and  in  the  triumph,  and  for  a  time 
the  two  retire  more  or  less  entirely  apart,  and  exhibit 
in  greater  purity  their  spiritual  characteristics.  This 
is  the  meaning  of  the  final  Judgment,  when  good  and 
evil,  having  each  wrought  itself  up  to  its  fullest  inten- 
sity, display  themselves  in  such  contrast  and  purity 
that  discrimination  and  mental  separation  of  the  same 
become  possible.  At  that  final  crisis  the  combatants 
will  not  be  allowed  to  retire  back  into  repose  and 
strengthen  themselves  for  a  new  conflict,  but  are  fit 
to  be  permanently  separated.  The  good  will  no 
longer  require  any  militancy.  As  in  the  case  of  the 
individual  Christian  sometimes,  all  internal  conflict 
and  the  need  of  it  are  over,  and  the  character  is  healed 


INSPIRA  TION  OF  SELECTED  MEN.         237 

and  perfected  in  some  particular  by  its  own  inner 
virtue.  This  final  Divine  Judgment  may  be  accompa- 
nied or  followed  by  correspondent  physical  changes,  the 
possibility  of  which  is  then  for  the  first  time  indicated. 
Of  this,  more  hereafter.  But  this  final  Judgment  is 
foreshadowed  at  periods  and  occasions,  and  its  idea 
illustrated,  though  the  conflict  be  but  temporarily 
lulled  ;  and  the  providential  dispensations  are  corre- 
spondent. 

Thus  the  key  to  the  Divine  method  in  governing 
the  world  may  be  possessed  more  or  less  perfectly, 
and  the  march  of  events  be  more  or  less  accurately 
read.  To  have  the  faculties  so  exalted,  and  their 
object-matter  illumined,  as  to  be  able  to  occupy  this 
profound  view-point,  is  the  prophetic  consciousness, 
which  may  be  rightly  called  a  Divine  revelation,  since 
it  is  owing  to  a  mystical  influence  intensifying  and,  if 
need  be,  transcending  the  Holy  Spirit's  ordinary 
influence. 

There  is  no  need  to  think  that  any  new  faculty  is 
superadded  for  the  occasion  to  the  ordinary  congeries 
of  human  faculties.  This  claim,  sometimes  made  by 
the  mystics  proper,  cannot  be  maintained.  This  would 
really  amount  to  a  new  creative  act,  to  suppose  which 
there  is  no  necessity  for  thought,  nor  any  authoriza- 
tion in  the  Christian  Scriptures.  It  is  rather  bringing 
into  action  the  native  and  hidden  powers  of  the  hu- 
man spiritual  soul  itself.  These  are  of  themselves, 
when  sufficiently  purified  and  exalted,  competent  to 
grasp  all  the  Divine  ideas.  It  is  too  low  a  notion  of 
humanity  to  think  otherwise.  Hence,  even  in  the 
highest  degree  of  Inspiration,  the  idiosyncrasy  of  the 
particular  mind,  so  illumined,  may  be  preserved,  and  in 


238  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

its  highest  flights  may  still  exhibit  its  native  schema, 
the  class  to  which  it  belongs,  and  the  peculiarities  of 
its  culture,  including  the  determination  of  its  heredity  ; 
yet  it  will  be  still  evident  that  these  men  are  sharing 
in  a  common  possession,  whose  uniqueness  may  be 
made  apparent.  Thus  throughout  the  Christian 
Scriptures  there  are  marked  peculiarities,  which  sepa- 
rate them,  as  a  whole  more  or  less  accurately  ascer- 
tained, from  all  other  human  writings,  which  cannot 
be  naturalistically  explained,  and  which,  when  ex- 
plained as  we  have  done,  have  their  philosophic  vindi- 
cation. The  proof  of  this  by  concrete  illustrations  is 
a  most  interesting  yet  extended  undertaking,  and  very 
fascinating  ;  but  is  beyond  the  purpose  of  this  treatise. 

The  notion  of  Inspiration,  as  thus  far  exhibited,  is 
one  to  which  science  can  offer  no  contradiction,  but 
with  which,  probably,  it  will  ultimately  harmonize.  It 
is  still  something  to  be  attained, — the  analysis  of  the 
human  mind  to  discover  its  finer  capacities  and  move- 
ments, and  their  method.  Our  psychologies  are  being 
reconstructed  and  show  signs  of  promise.  New  possi- 
bilities and  powers  are  yet  to  be  found  there,  just  as 
in  physical  nature  are  discovered,  perpetually,  new 
forces  and  relations. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  think  that  the  inspired  proph- 
ets understood  the  method  of  their  own  Inspiration. 
The  state  of  their  own  minds  seemed  to  them  an  ab- 
normal one,  they  not  knowing,  perhaps,  that  in  it  they 
had  approached  nearer  to  the  truly  normal  one. 
Naively  they  referred  it  to  some  whisperings  and  im- 
pulses of  the  Holy  Spirit,  just  as  Socrates  referred 
his  wisdom  to  his  peculiar  demon, — and  with  better 
reason.     Moreover  this  their  mental  illumination,  in 


INSPIRA  TION  OF  SELECTED  MEN.         239 

the  case  of  the  Christain  writers,  was  associated  in 
their  minds  with  the  charismata,  which  was  evidence 
to  them  that  it  was  from  a  Divine  Source.  The 
Svvapi?  i'lpiarov  working  mystically  was  not  an  unfa- 
miliar thought  to  them,  and  these  new  manifestations 
and  the  new  phase  of  their  own  consciousness  were 
referred  to  the  same  source. 

We  may  think  then  that  as  the  result  of  this  illu- 
mination each  mind  finds  itself  at  a  new  centre, 
whence  the  truth  is  perceived  in  its  manifold  relations, 
so  far  as  the  present  stage  in  the  development  of  the 
Divine  ideas  will  permit.  There  is  no  need  to  think 
that  it  went  beyond  this,  that  it  penetrated  the  Divine 
secrets  and  left  no  reserve  of  mystery.  If  Jesus  him- 
self could  acknowledge  ignorance  of  what  went  be- 
yond the  present  dispensation,  we  may  acknowledge 
a  like  ignorance  on  the  part  of  his  disciples.  The 
future  was  not  chronologically  mapped  out,  nor  the 
entire  evolution  of  the  idea  always  seen,  and  that 
their  human  conjectures  should  sometimes  be  mingled 
with  their  clear  vision,  obscuring  the  words  of  its 
utterance,  is  by  no  means  unlikely.  St.  Paul  some- 
times distinguishes  between  the  two.  So  both  he  and 
St.  Peter  may  have  thought,  (what  however  they  do 
not  explicitly  teach,)  that  the  final  day  was  nearer  at 
hand  than  it  proved  to  be.  The  outlines  of  the  inter- 
vening conflict  may  have  been  more  or  less  apparent 
to  them,  but  they  were  not  allowed  to  adapt  it  to  the 
terms  of  chronological  sequence ;  and  hence  all  subse- 
quent endeavors,  of  which  some  have  been  so  fond,  to 
mark  this  by  time  divisions  must  be  regarded  with  no 
confidence. 

And  while  each  one  of  them  must  be  thought  to 


24o  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

have  been  allowed  to  occupy  this  profounder  view- 
point, and  to  be  able  to  report  of  Christian  truth,  yet 
it  is  not  necessary  to  think  that  equal  ability  so  to  re- 
port of  it  as  to  clarify  it,  or  win  assent  to  it,  was  pos- 
sessed by  all.  One  might  be  able  to  reproduce  in 
words,  as  another  could  not,  its  profounder  features. 
St.  John,  with  his  meditative  intellect,  could  put  in 
words  and  make  explicit  for  minds  like  his  own  what 
others  were  not  able  to  do,  who  wrote  for  those  on 
their  own  mental  plane ;  and  which  St.  Paul,  while 
showing  that  he  had  appropriated  it,  yet  did  not  fully 
explicate,  being  more  imperatively  led  by  his  own 
tastes  and  purposes.  It  is  thus  an  advantage  for 
Christian  people  that  Christian  truth  has  reached 
them  through  differing  minds  :  yet  the  profound  agree- 
ment of  whose  utterances  is  so  wonderful,  so  detect- 
able beneath  their  minute  and  unimportant  discrep- 
ancies, that  any  naturalistic  accounting  for  the  same 
fails.  The  sceptical  and  critical  mind  occupies  itself 
with  these,  while  the  believing  mind  finds  new  har- 
monies perpetually,  and  it  becomes  more  and  more 
real  and  true  for  such  that  the  Divine  voice  has 
reached  them. 

In  this  one  way,  then,  it  has  been  provided  that 
God's  revelation  of  himself  at  this  period  of  his  gov- 
ernment of  the  world  may  be  rightly  disclosed  and  re- 
ceived. But  it  is  manifest  that  Scriptures  are  not  the 
only  possible  vehicle  of  historic  transmission,  though 
incontestibly  the  most  trustworthy.  Facts  and 
thoughts  can  reach  us  by  oral  traditions,  which,  how- 
ever, are  liable  to  more  dangers  than  written  ones,  to 
corruptions  from  which  these  are  not  wholly  exempt. 
Such  need  the  most  careful  authentication  to  author- 


INSPIRA  TION  OF  SELECTED  MEN.         241 

ize  us  to  ascribe  them  to  an  inspired  origin.  And 
facts  and  thoughts  can  be  enshrined  also  in  forms 
somewhat  securer,  and  very  permanent, — in  symbolic 
rites,  and  in  institutions.  All  these,  however,  being 
still  dependent  upon  the  subjective  estimation,  we 
may  think,  on  a  priori  grounds  and  after  the  analogy 
of  all  human  things,  as  liable  to  disaster,  or  slow 
change ;  and  historic  investigations,  sincerely  under- 
taken, show  abundant  evidence  that  this  has  been  ac- 
tually the  case.  Rites  have  been  modified,  maimed, 
or  rejected.  Alleged  oral  traditions  carry  us  back  to 
a  region  of  mist  and  uncertainty.  Institutions  have 
lost  features  that  may  be  essential,  or  have  been  made 
so  complicated  and  cumbrous  as  to  conceal  from  view 
what  in  them  is  most  essential.  The  Scriptures  have 
undergone  interpolations  and  changes,  and  to  ascer- 
tain their  authentic  text  is  a  mountainous  labor.  The 
conclusion  from  history  is  unavoidable  that  all  these 
are  not  exempt  from  the  danger  of  change  which 
besets  all  human  things.  The  question  then  arises 
whether  any  provision  has  been  made  for  the  preser- 
vation of  Christian  truth  in  its  essential  elements  ; 
and  any  means  provided  to  recover  it,  if  at  any  time 
or  place  its  integrity  has  been  impaired.  How,  then, 
(1)  is  the  right  objective  presentation  of  essential 
Christian  truth  always  possible  ?  and  (2)  what  security 
is  there  for  the  right  subjective  holding  of  the  same  ? 
These  two  questions  so  relate  each  other  that  it  may 
be  difficult,  and  perhaps  not  needful,  to  keep  them  apart. 

Vol.  II. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

THE    MEANS     OF     PRESERVING    AND    TESTING    CHRISTIAN 
TRUTH, THE    NOTION    OF    INFALLIBILITY. 

It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  words,  by  a  slow  pro- 
cess of  disintegration  or  accession,  fluctuate  in  their 
meaning,  and  any  set  of  propositions  may  thus  require 
from  time  to  time  to  be  examined,  and,  if  need  be, 
amended,  in  order  to  arouse  the  same  conceptions  in 
the  later  auditors  that  they  did  in  the  earlier  ones. 
And  when  this  is  not  the  case  and  the  common  inter- 
pretation has  undergone  no  change,  the  words,  as  re- 
lated to  the  minds  to  which  they  are  addressed,  are 
still  determined  in  their  meanings  by  their  preposses- 
sions, prejudices,  education,  and  chiefly  by  the  philoso- 
phy or  psychology  which  is  implicit  in  such  minds. 
There  is,  then,  no  perfect  security  that  the  words  will 
arouse  in  every  case  exactly  the  same  thoughts.  Am- 
pler knowledge  and  careful  reflection  in  any  individual 
mind  may  change  or  even  reverse  the  definitions  for- 
merly given  when  hearing  any  set  of  words,  and  re- 
quire a  new  internal  combination  of  conceptions. 
Thus  the  entire  synthesis  of  Divine  truth  externally 
presented  may,  in  the  subjective  holding,  undergo 
modification,  diminution,  or  enlargement.  What  se- 
curity is  there  that  its  essential  features,  in  which 
alone  lies  the  possibility  of  ultimate  harmonization 
and  agreement,  shall  be  preserved,  and  how  are  any 

242 


CHRISTIAN  TRUTH.  243 

wrong  conceptions  or  aberrancies  in  thinking  to  be 
corrected  ?  The  word  "  God "  uttered  to  different 
minds  by  the  same  sound  or  the  same  letters  may- 
mean  one  thing,  or  another,  or  yet  another.  Proba- 
bly the  idea  of  personality  is  never  absent  from  it, 
but  personality  may  be  untruly  or  inadequately 
thought.  The  word  may  mean  to  one  an  arbitrary 
and  immoral  power  and  will  which  rules  the  universe 
by  physical  laws  or  through  metaphysical  processes. 
To  another  it  may  mean  the  same  power  and  will  as 
the  expression  of  a  holy  nature  with  which  it  cannot 
be  inconsistent.  The  word  may  be  monotheistically 
apprehended,  or  tritheistically,  or  as  a  Unity  in  Trin- 
ity ;  and  the  immanent  relations  of  the  hypostases 
may  be  variously  thought.  What  is  the  constant 
quantity  or  element  in  the  more  or  less  complex  con- 
ception subjectively  held,  which  must  by  all  means  be 
preserved  to  render  it  essentially  Christian  ;  and  how 
is  the  idea  to  be  rightly  amplified  into  the  whole 
truth  with  which  it  is  affiliated  ?  Is  there  any  princi- 
ple in  the  Christian  mind  itself  which  is  corrective, 
and  which  may  or  will  ultimately  eliminate  any  con- 
tradiction, and  correct  any  misconception  ?  Or  are 
there  any  means  externally  and  providentially  provided 
whereby  the  expression  of  Christian  truth  may  be  from 
time  to  time  examined  and  more  carefully  and  cor- 
rectly defined  ?  If  there  be  any  such,  still  the  revised 
or  developed  statement  has  to  meet  the  same  possi- 
bility of  misconception  ;  and  if  the  acceptance  of  the 
formula  be  any  thing  more  than  a  blind  acquiescence 
in  a  form  of  words  irrespective  of  its  meaning,  that 
is,  a  mere  acquiescence  in  some  outward  authority, 
(thus  a  negative  attitude  of  the  mind  towards  the  truth 


244  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

and  a  confession  of  inability  to  appropriate  it  as 
truth,  in  which  case  it  must  be  inoperative  as  a 
moral  motive-spring  upon  the  conduct,  since  it  merely 
transfers  to  another  the  ground  of  holding  for  true) ; 
if  it  is  accepted  as  truth,  and  the  subjective  holding 
be  capable  of  correction,  then  the  means  and  method 
of  such  correction,  if  they  exist  at  all,  must  be  in  the 
progressive  Christian  consciousness  itself.  No  one 
can  transcend  this,  if  it  be  a  moral  and  religious  con- 
sciousness. Thus  in  the  one  case  we  have  a  merely 
outward  and  visible  sameness,  with  an  inward  and 
real  discordance,  and  an  endless  variety  ;  while  in  the 
other  case,  notwithstanding  any  apparent  outward 
discrepancy,  there  may  be  essential  or  comparative 
agreement,  and  that  growing  more  and  more  perfect. 

Here  now  is  room  and  occasion  for  the  Christian 
doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  may  be  thought  as 
operating  in  both  ways, — by  illumining  the  Christian 
consciousness  and  guiding  a  harmonizing  and  unifying 
process, — and  also  by  governing  and  guiding  the  out- 
ward means  of  correct  expression,  if  there  be  such. 

The  entirety  of  Christian  doctrine  may  be  thought 
to  be  implicit  and  deducible  a  priori  from  the  unique 
Christian  revelation  of  God  becoming  man,  and  its 
necessary  postulates.  By  human  endeavor  this  has 
been  elaborated  with  the  Christian  Creed.  The  his- 
tory of  such  elaboration  shows  that  no  statement  of 
the  same  could  be  regarded  as  exhaustive  and  final, 
but  that  it  was  susceptible  of  further  definition,  emen- 
dation, and  amplification.  And  it  is  obvious  that  this 
process  might  go  on  till  the  end  of  the  dispensation, 
and  yet  never  be  finished  and  perfect.  Such  elabora- 
tion, if  it  be  legitimate  and  confessedly  governed  by 


CHRISTIAN  TRUTH.  245 

the  Holy  Spirit,  must  make  the  task  of  the  subjective 
holder-for-true  easier  all  the  while,  and  the  likelihood 
of  mistake  less,  the  mediating  influence  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  in  the  mind  of  the  same  being  correspondent 
all  this  while. 

What  security,  then,  is  there,  that  such  elaboration 
shall  be  rightly  and  faultlessly  carried  on  ?  Is  any 
absolute  immunity  from  mistake,  even  for  such  an 
end,  actual,  thinkable,  or  possible  ?  If  so  where  is  it, 
how  lodged,  how  reached,  how  to  be  demonstrated 
or  acknowledged  ?  If  in  such  progressive  elaboration 
any  utterance  seems  to  contradict  the  soul's  inward 
and  most  sincere  convictions,  by  the  violation  of 
which  it  would  be  untrue  to  itself,  what  counter  argu- 
ment is  possible,  and  what  is  its  strength  ?  If  it  be 
claimed  that  such  infallibility  belongs  to  the  utterances 
in  faith  or  morals,  ex  cathedra,  of  some  officer  of  the 
Church,  or  of  any  General  Council,  we  are  met  at  once 
by  the  difficulty,  in  the  first  case,  of  determining  what 
are  utterances  ex  cathedra,  to  decide  which  there  are 
no  means  Divinely  revealed  or  provided,  and  the  pro- 
cess to  determine  which  must  be  liable  to  the  uncer- 
tainty of  all  human  mental  movements  ;  or  else  the 
alleged  authority  must  assume  its  ability  to  determine 
that  it  is  itself  authoritative — that  is,  beg  the  very  ques- 
tion to  be  proven,  and  thus  think  in  a  vicious  circle. 
The  logical  fallacy  is  so  evident  here,  that  it  is 
strange  that  the  so-called  argument  should  be  so 
constantly  reiterated.  And  in  the  other  case,  there  is 
a  similar  difficulty  in  determining  what  is  a  General 
Council.  Any  mode  of  deciding  it  is  a  process  de- 
pendent upon  human  judgment  and  arbitrary  defini- 
tions.    In  this  case,  too,  the  possibility  of  mistake  has 


246  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

been  acknowledged  by  referring  any  question  so  adju- 
dicated to  the  whole  Church  for  examination  and 
confirmation  ere  it  should  be  deemed  authoritative. 
Theoretically  this  is  an  appeal  to  the  general  Christian 
consciousness,  but  factually,  it  is  a  call  upon  the 
learned  and  thoughtful  men  in  the  Church  to  give  the 
question  deliberate  and  dispassionate  examination  to 
see  whether  it  is  a  part  of  the  original  deposit  of  the 
object-matter  of  faith.  Any  thing  so  sanctioned  has 
indeed  the  highest  ascertainable  authority,  which  it  is 
presumption  to  disregard  ;  but  infallibility  belongs  to 
no  set  of  propositions  whatever,  unless  and  so  far  as 
evidenced  to  have  been  guided  by  the  Holy  Spirit, 
who  also  must  provide  for  and  determine  the  right 
subjective  holding. 

Thus  absolute  certitude  is  still  problematical,  yet 
the  approach  to  it  may  be  closer  and  closer.  Chris- 
tian thinking,  the  deeper  it  goes  and  the  humbler  it 
grows,  finds  more  and  more  difficulty  and  objection 
to  any  claim  of  immediate  infallibility  anywhere  ;  and 
is  sure  that  the  question  must  be  re-thought  from  the 
start,  and  more  profoundly.  The  objections  to  this 
doctrine  are  also  a  priori,  and  grow  out  of  the  very 
idea  of  Christianity  itself.  The  fatal  objection  is  that 
the  notion  contradicts  its  central  principle,  and  di- 
vorces intellectual  insight  from  moral  and  religious 
rectitude  and  progress ;  involving,  in  short,  the  same 
misapprehension  which  makes  faith  and  love  indepen- 
dent virtues  and  graces,  and  ignores  their  radical 
affiliation  and  profound  identity. 

The  very  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  illumining 
the  field  of  the  mind  and  sharpening  the  spiritual  vis- 
ion is  not  independent  of  moral  and  religious  pre-con- 


CHRISTIAN  TRUTH.  247 

ditions.  Not  until  faith  has  confessed  its  sincerity  by 
an  overt  act  is  the  Holy  Spirit  promised  for  its  new 
functions  ;  and  the  growing  mental  insight  is  propor- 
tioned to  the  growth  in  holiness.  Jesus  Christ's  own 
career,  even,  is  an  illustration  of  this,  whose  perfect 
mental  illumination  depended  upon  and  resulted  from 
his  sacrificial  triumph.  "  Do  my  will,  and  ye  shall 
know  of  the  doctrine,"  is  his  own  word.  Not  until 
God's  will  is  done,  can  the  Godhead,  the  centre  and 
spring  of  all  Christian  doctrine,  be  rightly  known. 
All  misbelief  involves  a  false  conception  of  the  First 
Principle,  and  hence  its  worship,  if  any,  is  a  form  of 
idolatry.  Thus  the  illumination  and  insight  wrought 
by  the  Holy  Spirit  do  not  come  mechanically.  He 
does  not  enter  the  passive  intellect,  but  avails  himself 
of  the  whole  spiritual  structure,  operates  upon  and 
through  the  holy  and  ever-growing  holier  conscious- 
ness ;  and  the  degrees  of  insight  must  be  an  ever  ad- 
vancing growth  both  in  the  individual  and  in  the 
Church  at  large.  According  to  this  analogy,  as  fol- 
lowing this  rule,  we  may  think  that  the  mental  illumi- 
nation of  prophets  and  apostles  was  not  independent 
of  but  proportioned  to  their  religious  condition,  as 
well  as  adapted  to  their  native  mental  powers  ;  and 
that  some  of  them  had  reached  a  deeper  centre,  and 
saw  the  truth  more  in  its  fulness  than  others  ;  thus 
that  the  kind  and  degree  of  mystical  influence  upon 
them  was  not  arbitrarily  given  and  proportioned  ;  but 
that  even  here  man's  freedom  as  a  self-creator  was 
respected.  The  Old-Testament  and  the  New-Testa- 
ment Scriptures  warrant  us  in  thinking  that  the  call- 
ing of  Abraham  was  not  arbitrary,  but  was  a  reward 
for  his  faith,  and  had  intrinsic  fitness.     We  may  think 


248  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

St.  John's  pro  founder  insight  into  the  depth  of  mean- 
ing in  his  Master's  discourses  to  be  the  result  of  his 
more  entire  assimilation  in  character  to  the  Divine 
principle  of  love.  The  seemingly  arbitrary  selections, 
and  apparently  mechanical  inspiration,  are  so  few  as 
not  to  contradict  the  prevailing  analogy,  and  to  throw 
the  burden  of  proof  upon  those  who  regard  them  as 
purely  arbitrary  and  without  intrinsic  fitness  and 
meaning.  So  pervasive  throughout  the  Christian 
Scriptures  is  the  doctrine  that  the  Divine  government 
of  the  physical  forces  is  not  independent  of  but  ad- 
justed to  the  moral  and  religious  government,  that  no 
apparent  exception  to  this  can  be  admitted  as  actual, 
for  this  would  contravene  the  whole  philosophy  which 
underlies  these  writings. 

As  long  then  as  human  holiness  falls  short  of  per- 
fection the  fullest  mental  insight  cannot  be  possessed  ; 
and  the  degree  of  this  insight  must  have  its  fluctua- 
tions both  in  the  sphere  of  the  individual  and  in  that 
of  the  whole  Church  ;  and  if  the  mystical  influence 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  respects  human  nature  as  active, 
and  not  as  purely  passive,  it  must  be  graded  by 
these  moral  and  religious  pre-conditions.  Thus  it 
follows  that  a  doctrine  of  mental  infallibility  can- 
not be  legitimated  without  supposing  this  law  dis- 
regarded ;  and  that  the  notion  contradicts  the  idea 
of  Christianity  and  the  absolute  philosophy  upon 
which  the  Christian  revelation  is  based.  Indeed, 
if  we  allow  the  possibility  of  any  exception  to 
this  law,  we  separate  in  thought  the  Divine  will  from 
the  Divine  nature,  and  there  is  a  covert  Tritheism  in 
all  this.  Besides,  if  God  did  thus  occasionally  reverse 
the  order  and  method  of  his  own  activities,  and  over- 


CHRISTIAN  TRUTH.  249 

rule  human  freedom,  making  of  man  a  mere  passive 
organ,  there  would  be  need  that  the  procedure  should 
be  unmistakably  such,  and  show  itself,  what  it  would 
be  intrinsically,  as  a  purely  oracular  one,  and  not  that  it 
should  bear  a  semblance  capable  of  other  interpreta- 
tion, i.  e.,  as  operating  through  the  normal  exercise 
of  the  human  faculties.  It  would  be  analogous  to 
the  Pagan  methods.  This  is  the  very  essence  and 
definition  of  superstition,  to  make  the  movements  of 
the  First  Principle  arbitrary,  or  to  interchange  the 
order  and  supremacy  of  the  moral  and  religious  on 
the  one  hand,  and  the  physical  and  metaphysical  on 
the  other,  making  the  latter  mount  above  the  other, 
as  rule  or  as  exception.  But  in  the  history  of  Chris- 
tianity it  appears  that  the  mode  of  reaching  any  con- 
clusion or  statement  of  truth,  by  an  individual  or  an 
assembly,  has  been  through  the  use  of  the  ordinary 
human  faculties  and  their  normal  methods,  following 
the  ordinary  procedure  of  memory  and  understanding. 
Even  if  the  procedure  be  regarded  as  an  exercise  of 
memory  mainly,  and  the  purpose  be,  not  to  think  out 
a  system  of  doctrine,  but  to  declare  and  testify  to 
what  -has  been  already  delivered,  still  the  same 
methods  are  manifest, — the  comparison  by  each  one  of 
his  own  subjective  understanding  of  the  proposed 
doctrine,  with  the  subjective  understanding  of  others, 
past  or  present,  in  order  to  reach  agreement.  It  seems 
never  to  have  been  done  from  individual  impulse,  but 
after  reflection  and  consultation  with  others.  The 
object  and  effect  of  mutual  conference  has  been  to 
correct  by  discussion  and  reflection  individual  aber- 
rancies.  Truth  cannot  be  held  in  portions  entirely 
separated,  but  only  in  an  articulated  synthesis.     And 


250  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

in  such  conference,  probably  the  synthesis  in  each 
mind  has  undergone  modification ;  and  all  have  come 
nearer  to  assimilation,  and  thus  agreement  upon  some 
form  of  expression  has  become  possible.  At  the  least 
a  majority  have  reached  willingness  to  adopt  some 
form  of  words  as  entirely  adequate,  and  the  minority 
a  willingness  to  accept  it  as  provisionally  adequate  ; 
though  some  may  have  to  force  their  assent  for  peace' 
sake,  and  in  order  not  to  sacrifice  their  unity.  With 
many  the  work  of  reflection  ceases,  and  they  subside 
into  a  practical  unity ;  while  a  few  minds,  predomi- 
nantly thoughtful,  may  still  ponder  in  an  interior  and 
unconfessed  uncertainty,  and  so  remain  until  some  one 
more  adventurous  discovers  a  flaw  or  an  inadequacy 
in  the  formula  agreed  upon  ;  or  some  new  denial  or 
misapprehension  of  its  meaning  becomes  formidable, 
and  thus  a  new  conference,  and  a  developed  definition 
comes  to  pass.  No  conclusion  was  ever  reached  by 
Papal  or  Conciliar  utterance  that  has  not  been  medi- 
tated upon  by  the  most  thoughtful  and  trustworthy 
minds  that  could  be  availed  of ;  and  so  it  has  not  been 
by  an  effort  of  memory  merely,  but  of  deep  reflection 
as  well.  No  elaboration  of  truth  into  a  self-consistent 
synthesis  can  possess  absolute  certitude,  and  be  char- 
acterized as  infallible,  except  by  supposing  this  mental 
procedure  to  be  transcended.  It  would  be  then  lifted 
beyond  the  region  of  faith,  i.  e.,  be  deprived  of  all 
proper  ethical  and  religious  quality.  It  would  take 
its  place  among  mechanical  or  physical  processes.  It 
supposes  that  the  mind  may  be  enlightened  indepen- 
dent of  any  heart  characteristic ;  or  else  be  passive 
and  overruled ;  and  thus  an  exception  to  Jesus'  own 
rule  is  possible,  and  it  is  not  necessary  to  do  his  will 


CHRISTIAN  TRUTH.  251 

to  know  of  his  doctrine ;  or  else  it  concentrates  the 
entire  obedience  into  submission  to  an  external  and 
unproved  dictum,  irrespective  of  the  character  in  all 
other  respects.  And  concretely,  in  the  case  of  a  Con- 
ciliar  decision,  the  correct  result  is  made  dependent 
on  the  accidental,  or  providential  bringing  together 
of  a  sufficient  number  to  dominate  the  minority,  who 
cannot  be  supposed,  as  are  the  majority,  to  be  super- 
naturally  illumined.  And  a  host  of  unproved  hypothe- 
ses are  required  to  maintain  that  one  thing  and  not 
another  is  an  Ecumenical  Council.  The  function  al- 
lowed here  to  secular  influence  is  full  of  suspicion. 
The  function  of  such  an  assembly  is  indeed  something 
grand,  but  it  need  not  be  overrated,  or  rather  under- 
rated, by  regarding  it  as  a  magical  process. 

We  may  not,  indeed,  disregard  the  promise  that 
He  "who  has  begun  the  good  work  will  continue  it 
till  the  day  of  Christ,"  or  that  the  Holy  Spirit  will 
"  guide  into  all  truth."  We  have  valid  ground  for 
thinking  that  God's  revelation  of  himself  appeals  to 
what  is  deepest  in  man  ;  and  that  there  is  no  danger 
of  a  widespread  or  permanent  misapprehension  of 
Divine  truth.  But  we  think  all  this  on  other  grounds  ; 
and  the  present  question  is  simply  as  to  the  mode 
and  process  by  which  this  truth  is  illumined,  ampli- 
fied, and  appropriated.  We  hold,  then,  that  a  doc- 
trine of  infallibility,  as  commonly  stated,  is  founded 
upon  a  shallow  view  of  the  Divine  government,  too 
low  a  view  of  human  and  Christian  capacities,  and 
ignores  the  profound  harmony  of  the  Divine  attri- 
butes, discovered,  as  time  proceeds,  to  be  more  and 
more  wonderful.  It  is  reducible,  when  analyzed 
and  sifted,  to  the  same  philosophy  which   underlies 


252  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

all  Pagan  or  other  superstitious  systems,  and  is  indeed 
only  the  product  of  an  inferior  and  transient  phase  of 
human  mental  history. 

The  illumination  of  the  truth  by  the  Holy  Spirit  is 
reached,  then,  under  the  condition,  both  for  the  in- 
dividual Christian  mind,  and  for  the  whole  Church, 
of  more  and  more  intelligent  progressive  obedience. 
The  holy  will  being  supposed  as  a  constant  quantity, 
there  is  room  for  constant  growth  in  the  knozvledge  of 
what  the  Divine  will  requires  to  be  thought  and  done. 
Improvement  in  the  knowledge  of  duty  is  dependent 
upon  progressive  illumination  of  truth,  in  the  sum  of 
its  relations  ;  and  all  history  shows  that  moral  knowl- 
edge has  been  a  constant  growth.  The  convictions 
of  the  details  of  duty,  along  with  progressive  social 
development,  have  undergone  constant  change  and 
improvement,  while  the  motive-spring,  the  personal 
relation  to  God  in  Christ,  has  remained  the  same. 
The  conscience  of  the  Christian  world,  by  its  own  ad- 
mission, has  been  continually  corrected  and  improved. 
Many  things  once  thought  to  be  right  have  been 
found  to  contradict  the  requirements  of  the  ultimate 
ideal,  which  must  explain  and  justify  all  the  details  of 
duty.  Indeed,  if  there  be  development  in  the  physi- 
cal, social,  and  intellectual  life  of  mankind,  there  must 
be  a  correspondent  development  in  its  ethical  knowl- 
edge. Thus,  though  the  sacrificial  spirit  be  no 
stronger  now  than  at  any  period  of  the  Christian 
past,  we  are  wiser  to  understand  into  what  sort  of 
activities  this  spirit  should  flow. 

God's  work  goes  on  without  ceasing,  and  has  no 
real  but  only  apparent  retrogression.  Just  as,  in  the 
life  of  the  individual  Christian  what  look  like  retro- 


CHRISTIAN  TRUTH.  253 

gressions  are  discovered  to  be  preparations  for  new 
advance,  and  part  of  the  separating  and  sifting  process 
which  God,  through  his  providential  adaptation  and 
discipline,  is  carrying  on  ;  so,  in  the  history  of  any 
Christian  Church,  or  in  the  whole  of  Christendom, 
any  seeming  retrogression  is  but  the  preparation  for 
new  advance,  is  but  a  bringing  to  the  surface  and 
within  the  sphere  of  knowledge  what  was  hidden,  cor- 
rupting, and  disorganizing  before, — in  order  that  those 
regions  of  knowledge  over  which  a  temporary  gloom 
had  gathered  may  be  likewise  illumined.  And  the 
more  rapid  growth  in  moral  and  religious  knowledge 
supposes  a  more  rapid  and  complex  activity  on  the  part 
of  the  Holy  Spirit.  These  relations  within  the  compass 
of  knowledge,  thus  growing  more  complicated,  have  to 
be  adjusted  to  the  relations  beyond  its  compass,  that  all 
the  elements  of  perfect  being  may  mount  more  and 
more  into  perfect  harmonization  and  integrity.  The 
process  of  sanctification,  which  we  may  follow  with 
our  minds  more  or  less  correctly,  must  be  accompanied 
by  the  process  of  regeneration,  which  we  cannot  at 
all  follow,  and  which  adjusts  our  entire  structure,  in 
the  synthesis  of  its  essential  and  eternal  relations,  to 
the  absolute  being,  and  to  whatever  is  to  be  eternal  in 
the  universe  of  God,  to  the  pure  Glory  out  of  which  it 
came  and  the  intensified  Glory  to  which  it  tends. 


CHAPTER   XXII. 

CONTRAST    OF    THE    PRIMITIVE    CHRISTIAN    PERIOD  WITH 
THE     SUBSEQUENT    PERIOD. 

We  have  not  yet  exhausted  all  that  it  is  necessary 
to  note  concerning  the  method  of  the  Holy  Spirit's 
activity  and  influence.  It  may  be  helpful,  just  here,  to 
consider  the  distinction  between  the  condition  of  the 
Christian  Church  in  the  very  early  days  and  its  subse- 
quent history.  This  first  period  is  marked  by  certain 
tokens  which  have  ceased  during  the  subsequent  one, 
— the  various  charismata,  and  the  inspiration  then 
claimed  and  acknowledged.  For  a  time  the  history 
of  the  Church  proceeded  under  exceptional  condi- 
tions. These  were  changed  when  the  unusual  gifts 
ceased,  gradually  or  abruptly.  There  is,  perhaps,  no 
sharp  line  of  separation,  but  very  soon  the  career  of 
the  Church  went  on  by  the  same  means  and  methods 
which  have  prevailed  ever  since.  Whether  slowly  or 
suddenly,  the  one  set  of  conditions  subsided  into  the 
other,  and  the  contrast  is  marked,  and  requires  recon- 
ciliation. The  contrast  must  be  emphasized  and  will 
be  found  very  instructive.  There  is  nothing  gained 
but  much  lost  by  seeking  to  blend  and  identify  the 
two  periods,  by  claiming  that  the  characteristics  of 
the  former  have  been  prolonged  into  the  latter,  and 
that  inspiration  and  miracles  are  not  merely  possible, 
but  have  been  actual,  and  still  occasionally  and  spo- 

254 


THE  PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  PERIOD.      255 

radically  occur.  If  we  have  explained  rightly  the 
method  of  the  later  period  of  the  Divine  government 
which  has  prevailed  throughout  it,  and  prevails  now, 
then  we  have  still  to  seek  for  the  intent  and  explana- 
tion of  the  former  one,  and  to  justify  its  exceptionality. 
It  would  seem  that  the  full  possibilities  of  the 
Christian  idea  and  the  correspondent  activity  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  operating  upon  human  character,  were 
elicited  in  these  early  days,  and  their  ultimate  realiza- 
tion in  the  commonwealth  transiently  anticipated,  in 
such  measure  at  least  as  to  hint  of  the  final  social 
state.  The  passionate  response  to  the  love  of  Christ 
here  exists  in  its  full  intensity.  Faith  is  allowed  evi- 
dence so  almost  overpowering  as  to  tremble  on  the 
verge  of  sight.  Inspiration  produces  within  a  certain 
range  certitude  as  nearly  absolute  as  is  possible,  still 
keeping  the  consciousness  within  the  region  of  faith. 
So  dwindle  in  importance  for  subjective  estimation 
the  doings  of  the  world,  and  the  whole  temporal 
sphere,  with  its  transient  and  conventional  distinctions, 
that  the  imagination  leaps  forward  to  the  ultimate, 
perfect,  and  real-ideal  universe.  Time-limits  shrink, 
and  the  day  of  consummation  seems  near  at  hand,  so 
potent  seems  the  new  force  that  has  entered  the 
world.  Martyrdom  is  not  only  endured,  but  wel- 
comed and  entered  into  joyfully.  Human  selfishness 
is  struck  at  the  root,  the  commonwealth  of  love  is 
attempted,  and  a  common  possession  of  earthly  goods 
exists,  as  in  the  primal  innocence.  Domination  over 
the  powers  of  nature  in  some  degree  and  for  provi- 
dential ends  is  allowed,  and  thus  the  final  relation  of 
the  perfected  spiritual  soul  to  the  physical  universe  is 
in  some  particulars  anticipated.     Faith  cures  physical 


256  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

disease.  The  adverse  forces  give  way  before  the  vast 
increment  of  vitality  which  follows  the  spiritual  being 
thus  urged  upward.  Individual  aberrancies  in  the 
holding-for-true  are  immediately  corrected.  The  de- 
tails of  duty  are  adjusted  with  exactitude  to  the  whole 
environment.  If  all  this  be  historically  trustworthy, 
evidently  the  Holy  Spirit  is  accomplishing  immedi- 
ately upon  the  individual  soul,  and  mediately  through 
the  intervention  of  kindred  souls,  all  that  is  possible 
without  wronging  human  freedom. 

But  such  a  state  of  things  did  not  continue  ;  and 
since  it  was  once  possible,  we  may  well  ask  why 
should  it  not  have  continued.  Why  must  it  subside 
into,  or  give  way  to,  the  method  of  the  Divine  gov- 
ernment that  has  ever  since  prevailed  ?  Is  the  change 
arbitrary  ?  Were  the  conditions  of  human  nature 
violated  and  the  whole  life  of  the  Church  lifted  up  by 
Divine  potence  into  the  outskirts  of  the  ideal  state, 
in  which  miracles  are  the  law  and  cease  to  be  won- 
ders, and  then  allowed  to  drop  back  again  ?  Or  does 
the  method  of  the  Divine  procedure  remain  ever  the 
same,  and  may  we  learn  from  this  history,  so  won- 
drously  illumined,  how  to  interpret  and  understand 
the  life  of  the  Church  ever  since  ? 

A  providential  purpose  in  producing  or  allowing 
this  early  and  transient  condition  is  discoverable. 
The  ideal  possibilities  of  the  religion  of  Christ,  thus 
exhibited  temporarily  and  by  a  vanishing  glance,  en- 
able its  power  to  be  fully  understood  ;  and  this  be- 
comes a  stimulus  and  a  boon  to  the  faith  of  the  sub- 
sequent periods.  We  have  in  miniature  that  picture 
of  the  perfect  Church  on  a  small  scale  that  is  to  be 
realized  at  length   on  a  grand  scale,   and  to  which 


THE  PRIMITIVE  CHRIS  TIA  N  PERIOD.      2  5  7 

through  the  weary  centuries,  it  has  to  slowly  work  its 
way.  The  conditions  for,  and  the  rights  of  human 
freedom  were  not,  then,  in  this  early  period  overborne 
or  transcended  ;  and  it  only  remains  to  convince  our- 
selves that  it  was  best  for  humanity  that  this  transitory 
state  of  things  should  not  have  continued,  or  perhaps 
that  it  was  impossible  that  it  should  have  continued. 
We  may  not  decline  this  enquiry,  which  seems  at  first 
so  difficult. 

Let  us  not,  however,  exaggerate  the  contrast.  At 
every  period  in  the  existence  of  the  Church  there 
have  been,  more  or  less  plentifully  or  sparsely,  in- 
stances of  faith  rivalling  in  intensity  the  faith  of  this 
early  period.  In  our  own  day  we  may  find  such,  here 
and  there,  and  in  God's  knowledge  they  may  be  more 
numerous  than  they  seem.  But  we  are  able  now  and 
then  to  note  them, — cases  in  which  faith  is  exhibited  in 
its  transparent  simplicity,  and  in  its  unbounded  self- 
sacrifice.  Indeed,  we  are  led  sometimes  to  suspect 
that  in  all  sincere  followers  of  Christ,  notwithstanding 
their  faultiness  and  the  inconsistency  of  much  that 
they  do  with  their  profession,  and  beneath  the  super- 
ficial covering  of  their  ordinary  behavior,  faith  exists 
in  degree  sufficient  to  bear  the  ultimate  test,  and  that 
the  real  problem  is  to  discover  the  conditions  for  its 
concealment.  For  in  the  present  mixed  and  complex 
social  life  of  mankind,  such  cannot,  as  in  the  early 
days,  exist  as  a  community  apart,  and  hence  lack  the 
full  stimulus  and  encouragement  of  contact,  com- 
panionship, and  sympathy.  Whatever  be  their  will 
they  are  unable  to  comprehend  and  mend  the  social 
condition  manifestly  wrong,  and  so  their  religious  life 
is    measurably   concealed.       Sporadic    attempts,    all 

Vol.  II. 


258  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

through  Christian  history,  have  been  made  to  repro- 
duce or  to  rival  the  primitive  Christian  community. 
These  have  sometimes  seemingly  attained  their  pur- 
pose, or  transiently  so,  but  more  often  have  been  cari- 
catures or  contradictions  of  what  a  Christian  com- 
munity should  be,  and  have  been  abused  for  selfish  or 
sensual  purposes.  In  all  this  the  true  ideal  end  of 
Christianity  has  been  neglected  or  lost  sight  of ; — 
which  is  not  a  group  or  series  of  small  communities, 
isolated  and  autonomous,  but  one  grand  community, 
one  human  brotherhood,  transcending  even  the 
bounds  of  nationality  or  race.  The  idea  underlying 
these  small  associations  has  been  individualistic  rather 
than  truly  communistic  ;  rather  exclusive  than  inclu- 
sive. Slowly,  indeed,  has  progress  towards  the  true 
ideal  end  been  made,  and  the  attainment  seems  still 
very  far  off,  but  the  progress  towards  it  is  not  doubt- 
ful, and  is  incessant.  It  is  the  main  social  problem  of 
our  time,  and  men  are  wandering  in  the  dark,  to  all 
appearance,  but  are  Divinely  guided,  and  will  one  day 
find  that  they  have  been  so  led. 

While,  then,  the  faith  of  the  very  faithful  ones  is 
very  heavily  tasked  often  for  lack  of  human  sympathy 
and  companionship,  still  we  find  it  now  and  then  mani- 
festing its  strength,  and  the  characteristics  of  the  early 
days  scatteringly  reproduced.  In  two  respects  only 
it  seems  to  fall  short  of  these  characteristics  :  (^In- 
spiration such  as  then  existed  has  manifestly  ceased, 
and  the  safeguards  of  the  holding-for-true  are  other- 
where to  be  sought  after ;  and  (2)  the  domination  in 
any  extent  over  the  forces  of  nature,  such  as  to  pro- 
duce the  miraculous,  though  claimed,  either  does  not 
exist  at  all,  or  is  seen  only  so  rarely  and  under  such 


THE  PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  PERIOD.      259 

conditions  as  not  to  be  able  to  triumph  over  incre- 
dulity. It  would  seem  not  to  be  impossible,  a  priori, 
that  a  true  faith,  deep  and  strong,  should  still  be  com- 
petent to  conquer  the  physical  forces,  but  in  order  to 
be  such  faith  it  must  know  that  its  purpose  is  provi- 
dentially permitted.  Otherwise  it  has  not  the  essential 
mark  of  the  faith  that  works  miracles,  inasmuch  as  its 
maxim  and  prayer  is  not  "  Let  God's  will  be  mine," 
but  "  Let  my  will  be  God's."  In  the  alleged  instances 
of  faith  accomplishing  for  its  subject  the  cure  of  physi- 
cal disease,  we  are  shut  up  to  the  necessity  of  account- 
ing for  it  by  natural  processes,  known  or  sought  for, 
and  to  think  that  the  powers  of  nature  are  not  transcen- 
ded but  availed  of :  and  this,  not  only  for  the  reason 
above  given,  but  for  the  other  reason  that  the  alleged 
faith  is  not  Christian  faith,  and  measured  in  its  inten- 
sity by  the  degrees  of  holiness  and  the  sacrificial  spirit, 
but  is  merely  mental  concentration  and  positiveness. 
It  may  retain  the  intellectual  element  of  faith,  but  is 
without  its  moral  and  religious  constituents,  and  thus 
is  not  Christian  faith.  But  the  abstract  possibility 
still  remains, — that,  were  it  in  accordance  with  the 
ends  of  Divine  providence,  the  faith  of  a  Christian 
believer  might  reach  the  ideal  relation  of  the  holy 
soul  towards  the  physical  forces,  and  be  able  to  cure 
disease,  or  to  work  any  other  physical  miracle.  But 
as  to  any  alleged  actual  instances  of  this  we  still 
remain  incredulous,  not  only  because  the  evidence  is 
doubtful, — the  occasion,  the  need,  and  the  method 
wanting  in  simplicity  and  dignity,  rivalling  the  un- 
moral characteristics  of  the  apochryphal  wonders,  or  of 
necromancy, — but  on  deeper  grounds,  and  because  we 
are  convinced  that  it  is  best  that  the  life  of  the  Church 


260  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

should  be  urged  forward  and  sustained  without  these 
external  props.  The  early  Christian  miracles  reacted 
upon  the  entire  Christian  community.  These  alleged 
modern  ones  radiate  but  little  way,  and  do  not  seem 
to  deepen  the  sacrificial  spirit.  They  produce  passive 
obedience  to  the  authority  which  desires  it,  and  run 
into  permitted  superstitions,  rather  than  purify  and 
strengthen  sacrificial  love  or  the  spirit  of  martyrdom. 
That  during  this  early  period,  when  faith  so  intense 
existed  in  the  Christian  body  in  general,  it  should 
have  been  protected  in  its  holding-for-true  by  admitted 
inspiration  seems  obvious  and  necessary.  The  transi- 
tion from  Jewish  and  Pagan  ideas  was  so  abrupt  and 
violent  that  an  unusual  array  of  mental  forces  was 
needful  to  fasten  the  subject  to  his  new  intellectual 
centre.  But  as  Jewish  or  Pagan  systems  grew  sub- 
jectively weaker,  as  the  Church  and  the  world  ran 
more  and  more  into  each  other,  and  each  assimilated 
some  elements  of  the  other,  as  the  outlook  grew 
larger,  and  the  date  of  the  consummation  receded,  as 
the  conditions  for  the  spread  of  Christianity  through- 
out the  world  were  made  apparent,  and  the  attain- 
ment of  the  ultimate  ideal  seemed  more  difficult, — in 
such  a  state  of  things  faith  became  in  its  diffusion  at- 
tenuated and  weakened,  though  still  having  its  points 
of  concentration  ;  and  inspiration,  too,  ceased  and  was 
no  longer  claimed.  What  broke  up  the  primitive 
state  made  it  needless,  if  not  impossible.  It  can  only 
be,  if  ever  again,  when  the  whole  body  of  Christian 
believers  is  cleanly  separated  from  the  party  of  Anti- 
christ, and  exhibits  itself  as  a  commonwealth  of  love, 
spiritually  tied  together,  with  physical  environment 
disparate  ;  in  which  condition  faith  may  be  made  the 


THE  PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  PERIOD.      261 

strongest,  and  show  its  strength  the  most  when  its 
trial  is  greatest.  Present  inspiration  would  be  no 
boon  to  the  religious  life,  since  it  would  weaken  faith 
by  depriving  it  of  its  needed  discipline.  Some  other 
safeguard  in  the  holding-for-true  must  be  sought  or 
had,  until  it  come  again. 

The  early  Church  underrated  the  strength  of  the 
immense  mass  of  evil  which  characterized  the  outer 
world,  and  which  it  was  its  task  to  penetrate.  It 
gathered  its  first  disciples  readily  from  those  who 
were  in  some  degree  already  assimilated,  not  only  by 
what  was  held  by  the  Jewish  and  Christian  religions  in 
common,  but  in  the  more  diffused  sense  of  moral  dere- 
liction, of  the  misery  springing  from  it,  and  the  long- 
ing to  be  liberated.  The  opposition  of  heathendom 
was  not  at  once  understood  as  to  its  strength  and  mag- 
nitude. The  first  converts  were  made  so  speedily  that 
hopes  were  raised  which  proved  to  be  unfounded,  that 
the  whole  world  would  be  soon  conquered,  or  at  least 
the  election  brought  out,  and  thus  made  ready  for  the 
final  day.  For  a  time  enthusiasm  was  not  dampened, 
and  their  passionate  zeal  wrought  forward  with 
only  such  opposition  as  it  was  their  delight  to 
overcome,  or  triumphantly  submit  to  in  the  martyr 
spirit.  Thus  and  otherwise  were  the  conditions  had 
for  the  characteristics  of  the  early  Church.  Faith,  in 
one  sense  strong,  so  strong  as  to  triumph  over 
the  immediate  difficulties,  in  another  sense  was  weak, 
as  not  yet  disciplined  by  trial  and  the  subtler  doubts. 
The  seductive  qualities  of  evil  in  its  Protean  forms, 
and  the  attractiveness  hence  of  unbelief,  were  not  felt, 
or  were  disregarded.  They  had  not  leisure  to  reflect 
upon  and  measure  the  strength  of  the  opposition  to 


262  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

be  overcome.  The  confidence  in  the  inspired  ones, 
their  religious  guides,  was  nearly  unlimited  ;  and 
while  they  were  associated  with  men  who  had  talked 
with  their  Lord  Jesus,  and  had  seen  his  risen  body, 
faith  had  little  trial, — not  such  as  it  had  when  all 
these  things  had  faded  away  into  the  past.  The  faith 
that  could  conquer  the  world  must  be  able  to  triumph 
over  the  opposition  that  only  slowly  gathered  strength, 
and  be  steady  against  all  the  fascinations  of  error  and 
the  most  recondite  forms  in  which  the  principle  of 
evil  should  show  itself.  The  necessities  of  this  con- 
flict make  the  task  and  trial  of  faith  harder  and  severer 
as  the  generations  pass  ;  and  if  it  is  to  be  urged  to  its 
uttermost,  and  out  of  itself  realize  on  a  grand  scale 
what  was  real  in  the  little  and  limited  one  of  the  early 
days,  then  the  trials  of  faith  must  grow  extreme 
towards  the  end,  and  at  last  be  so  painful  as  once 
more  to  require  and  be  worthy  of  the  boon  of  Divine 
interposition  to  relieve  it.  "  When  the  Son  of  Man 
cometh,  shall  He  find  faith  on  the  earth?"  Before 
the  signal  which  winds  up  the  cycle,  it  may  be  that 
miracles  and  inspiration  will  appear  once  more,  though 
in  our  thought  we  recognize  no  necessity  for  them. 

Now,  not  only  have  Christian  people  to  attain  their 
utmost  of  holiness  without  these  external  aids,  if  they 
be  thought  such,  and  still  through  the  secret  influence 
yet  normal  activity  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  but  they  have 
to  attain  insight  of  the  truth  without  them  ;  and  not 
through  any  hypothecated  oracle,  but  by  the  sharp- 
ening of  their  spiritual  insight,  to  result  from  their 
faith  made  strong  by  their  trials.  The  Christian  con- 
sciousness has  in  itself  the  principle  corrective  of  all 
wanderings  from  the  truth,  since  it  has  laid  hold  upon 


THE  PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  PERIOD.      263 

God's  revelation  of  his  central  self.  The  recognition 
that  the  First  Principle  is  loving  from  its  essential 
structure,  and  that  this  Love  has  manifested  itself  in 
the  Incarnation  of  the  Eternal  Son,  is  the  key  to  un- 
lock all  mysteries  and  to  harmonize  all  truth,  sooner 
or  later.  To  no  single  mind  is  it  given  to  make  a 
perfect  analysis  of  this,  to  discover  all  its  implications, 
or  to  make  a  faultless  synthesis  of  all  existing  relations 
between  this  and  the  universe  ;  but  all  aberrancies 
are  sure,  sooner  or  later,  to  come  back  to  this  test  and 
be  condemned  or  corrected  by  it.  Even  those  who 
assert  any  other  and  subordinate  test  must  and  do, 
necessarily,  avail  themselves  of  this  to  legitimate  it. 
Thus  slowly  is  the  system  of  Divine  truth,  already 
possessed  in  its  main  outlines,  filled  up  in  its  ramifica- 
tions, and  coherency  gradually  reached.  This  work  is 
guided  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  whose  mystical  influence, 
leading  into  all  truth,  is  confined  to  no  man,  or  class 
of  men,  but  operates  upon  all  who  have  committed 
themselves  to  Christ,  and  possess  faith  in  its  essential 
and  indispensable  elements. 

The  clear  apprehension  of  Divine  truth  is  by  no 
means  commensurate  with  the  ability  to  express  it 
and  communicate  the  individual  subjective  apprehen- 
sion of  it  to  others.  This  ability  comes  from  special 
gifts,  endowments,  and  culture  in  the  means  of  ex- 
pression. It  is  hence  that  Theology  as  a  science 
exists,  and  that  men  have  to  be  trained  to  meditate 
upon  Divine  things,  who  can  report  the  Christian 
consciousness  correctly,  and  bear  accurate  testimony 
as  to  the  "  truth  once  delivered  to  the  saints."  Slowly 
and  through  much  discussion  are  the  pathways  of  error 
discovered  and  fenced  off,  and  the  task  for  each  new 


264  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

generation  made  a  little  easier.  The  main  outline  of 
Christian  truth  may  not  be  as  naively  and  without 
counter  solicitations  apprehended  as  in  the  early  days, 
and  hence  by  many  not  as  clearly  seen  and  as  indis- 
putably held,  and  so  even  around  this  discussion  and 
enquiry  must,  to  some  extent,  range.  This  is  the 
vantage  which  the  Theologians  of  the  early  Church 
possessed  over  ourselves,  and  we  rightly  go  to  them 
to  discover  the  primitive  tradition ;  yet  never  without 
subjecting  the  report  of  any  individual  one  to  the  test 
of  the  common  possession,  to  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciple itself.  By  means  of  this  did  some  in  the  early 
days  correct  the  mistakes  of  others.  The  heresiarchs 
were  brought  to  the  bar  of  the  primitive  tradition  as 
subjectively  apprehended  by  the  healthy  Christian 
consciousness.  Thus  no  full  theologic  knowledge  is 
likely  to  be  had,  without  knowing  its  historic  develop- 
ment. Every  now  and  then  some  one  ignorant  of 
this  starts  upon  a  pathway  which  has  been  long  since 
followed,  and  found  to  be  a  cul  de  sac,  or  to  lead 
around  to  a  contradiction. 

But,  in  the  subordinate  elements  of  the  truth,  in  the 
minute  ramifications  of  the  same,  which  too  must  be 
wrought  into  self-consistency  with  themselves  and 
with  the  main  outline,  and  thus  help  to  constitute  a  per- 
fect and  trustworthy  synthesis, — in  the  apprehension 
of  these  and  in  the  ability  satisfactorily  to  systema- 
tize the  whole,  the  vantage  is  clearly  with  our- 
selves. Into  the  pathways  of  fundamental  error 
Theologians  now  seldom  or  only  transiently  wander. 
Even  though  the  ordinary  Christian  mind  has  never 
followed  through  the  centuries  the  history  and  the 
evolution  of  Christian  doctrine,  it  possesses  its  result 
insensibly.     Our  enquiry,  in  these  latter  days,  is  more 


THE  PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIAN  PERIOD.      265 

limited,  or  is  busied  with  new  questions,  and  we  have 
larger  material  for  a  complete  and  harmonious  synthe- 
sis. Essential  unity  in  Christian  doctrine  is  no  chi 
mera,  and  is  still  to  be  attained.  The  progress  to  it 
has  been  wonderful,  and  we  are  nearer  to  it  than  we 
know.  It  is  wronging  the  Christian  intellect  to  think 
that  we  cannot  reach  such  a  synthesis  of  doctrines  that 
its  harmony  and  its  inner  coherence  shall  be  evidence 
of  its  truth,  and  that  it  may  be  said  to  be  The  Truth. 
Those  minds  which  are  busy  in  the  quiet  depths  be- 
neath the  waves  of  superficial  controversy  have  been 
during  the  present  half  century,  and  are  now,  think- 
ing in  converging  and  not  in  diverging  lines,  and  that 
independent  of  all  ecclesiastical  allegiance.  This  is 
the  most  hopeful  sign  of  the  times,  more  important 
than  all  the  noisy  cataclysms  in  the  political  and 
social  worlds.  Whenever  this  blissful  period  may 
come,  at  no  time  will  or  can  Christian  thinkers  lay 
down  their  mental  implements  and  arms  in  discourage- 
ment. The  day  when  such  agreement  will  be  may  be 
far  off,  or  nearer  than  we  think.  Like  the  day  of  the 
Lord  it  may  be  hastened  forward  by  the  "  prayers  of 
the  saints,"  and  its  arrival  is  a  pre-condition  for  that 
day.  That  which  makes  it  seem  far  off  is  not  any  ill 
success,  or  want  of  fertility  in  mental  work,  but  it  is 
the  faulty  holiness,  and  because  the  sacrificial  spirit 
which  triumphs  over  worldliness  is  so  little  pervasive. 
But  after  all,  this  may  not  be  the  truest  measure  of 
Christian  growth,  for  the  faith  which  is  subjected  to 
the  severest  trials  is  necessarily  introverted,  and  is 
called  upon  for  internal  and  invisible  sacrifices  rather 
than  for  external  ones.  It  lets  the  world  rush  on 
around  it,  and  falls  in  with  its  ways,  and  goes  through 
its  inward  struggles  and  triumphs,  and  thus  clears  the 


266  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

way  to  emerge  into  activity  perhaps,  or  at  least  for 
others  to  follow  in  more  manifest  sacrifice  and  more 
evident  holiness.  Any  attainment  of  agreement  in 
Christian  doctrine,  after  subsidence  of  controversy, 
anywhat  widespread,  and  the  consequent  lightening 
of  the  struggle  of  faith,  is  seen  to  be  followed  by  a 
period  of  outward  activity,  of  Christian  zeal,  of  mis- 
sionary or  philanthropic  enterprise,  and  more  numer- 
ous tokens  of  self-sacrifice,  and  the  easier  solution  of 
all  social  problems.  And  thus  too  is  legitimated  the 
hope  and  the  thought  that  Christian  unity  is  to  be 
sought,  and  can  only  be  attained  through  unity  in 
doctrine.  It  is  the  disagreements  and  disputes  among 
Christians  which  deaden  zeal  and  abate  enthusiasm  as 
a  general  characteristic  of  Christian  professors,  and 
make  missionary  work  slow  in  success,  and  bewilder 
the  premises  from  which  we  struggle  after  practical 
measures.  Let  agreement  in  doctrine,  exclusive  of 
the  range  still  open  for  speculation,  be  attained,  and 
any  extravagances  in  worship  or  ritual,  or  equally  ex- 
travagant rejection  of  worship  or  ritual  intrinsically 
proper,  will  find  ready  correction,  and  all  legitimate 
variations,  coming  from  individual  or  temporary 
tastes,  be  complacently  indulged  and  allowed.  Let  it 
never  be  for  a  moment  forgotten  that  God  is  at  the 
centre,  and  will  carry  on  his  work  till  the  day  of 
Christ,  through  means  undiscoverable  by  us,  or  only 
dimly  descried,  yet  still  and  for  the  most  part  through 
means  that  we  know  and  will  at  length  recognize, — 
through  the  illumination  of  the  common  Christian 
mind  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  consequent  upon  and  condi- 
tioned by  the  intensification  of  the  sacrificial  spirit, 
of  the  same  spirit  that  marked  the  great  martyr,  in 
Gethsemane  and  on  Calvary. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

QUESTION     AS     TO     THE    MODE     OF     THE     HOLY     SPIRIT^ 
ACTIVITY, THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    PRAYER. 

We  think  that  we  have  now  opened  all  the 
problems  which  require  for  their  explanation  the  doc- 
trine of  the  activity  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  A  final  en- 
quiry is  now  needed  to  ascertain  the  modus  of  this 
activity  ;  and  thus  to  supply  the  sustaining  principle 
of  the  whole  doctrine,  the  keystone  of  the  whole  arch 
of  truth  cohering  to  it. 

We  must  at  the  start  bring  up  again  for  reflection, 
what  we  have  established  before,  the  doctrine  sup- 
ported by  philosophy  and  true  science,  and  confirmed 
by  revelation, — that  the  universe,  as  comprising  physi- 
cal, mental,  and  moral  elements  and  relations,  is  a 
unit,  and  not  two  or  three  unrelated,  or  arbitrarily 
related,  spheres  ;  therefore  that  the  Divine  govern- 
ment of  it  may  be  and  must  be  unified  to  be  under- 
stood. We  have  sought  too  to  establish  that  the  key 
to  understand  this  government  is  to  be  sought  in  the 
moral  realm  ;  that  its  end  is  supreme,  and  the  other 
two  subordinate  ;  that  the  universe  is  only  a  true  con- 
crete and  has  intelligible  reality,  as  thus  thought. 
A  universe  of  physical  material  and  forces  merely,  into 
which  thinking  and  enjoying  creatures  are  thrust,  is 
without  meaning,  and  the  contradiction  is  unsolvable. 
No  physical  movements  can  explain  the  thought  or 

267 


268  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

the  enjoyment  as  we  find  them.  An  imperious  logical 
method  which  disregards  the  capacity  to  love  and  en- 
joy is  equally  impotent,  and  a  similar  duality.  Unity 
in  thought  can  only  be  reached  by  taking  love  and 
bliss  as  the  highest,  central,  and  unifying  element,  of 
which  the  physical  universe  is  the  means  of  develop- 
ment and  enrichment,  and  between  which  two  thought 
is  the  medium*  If  we  reject  Dualism  in  any  form,  we 
cannot  separate  physical  movements  from  moral  ends. 
If  the  former  act  upon  and  are  determined  by  the 
needs  of  the  latter,  then  there  is  no  more  difficulty  in 
thinking  a  remote  or  ultimate  result  than  one  immedi- 
ate  or  proximate,  and  the  latter  must  take  its  place 
within  the  requirements  of  the  former.  Physical 
movements  do,  by  universal  acknowledgment,  ac- 
complish moral  ends  immediately  or  proximately,  and 
the  entire  physical  movement  may  and  must  accom- 
plish the  ultimate  moral  end.  If  then  the  source  and 
spring  of  all  physical  movement  be  not  abstract 
potence  merely  (and  its  very  self-consistence  and 
harmony  with  itself  is  precisely  the  definition  of  pur- 
pose, since  it  has  thus  all  the  elements  of  the  idea), 
but  is  under  guidance,  and  has  its  impetus  and  expla- 
nation in  love, — then,  since  this  love  is  Divine,  it  has 
all  energy  at  its  command,  it  is  omnipotent,  exhaust- 
less,  and  sufficient,  and,  regarded  in  this  abstract  way, 
seems  incapable  of  any  increment.  But  in  this  ab- 
stract way  love  is  only  superficially  thought ;  for  from 
its  very  nature  it  demands  a  return,  and  is  only 
love  as  it  can  be  returned.  Within  the  absolute 
Godhead  itself  are  the  conditions  of  reciprocation, 
otherwise  its  love  could  not  be  changeless  and  eternal. 
But  this  love  has  overflowed  into  temporal  existence, 


THE  HOLY  SPIRITS  ACTIVITY.  269 

and  the  universe  cannot  be  regarded  as  displaying  the 
Divine  Love  except  as  it  has  in  it,  or  to  be  in  it,  that 
which  can  give  the  reciprocation.  Therefore  the  Di- 
vine Love,  though  abstractly  thought  incapable  of 
intensification,  as  concreted  in -the  universe  would  fall 
short  of  its  definition  and  fail  of  its  end,  if  it  were 
not  to  receive  this  return,  which  alone  opens  out  its 
fountains.  It  can  only  flow  forth  in  its  purity  and 
intensity  as  the  objects  are  or  become  capable  of  re- 
ciprocating it,  and  thus  enlarge  their  own  capacity  to 
receive  it.  Like  the  electric  current,  the  circuit  must 
be  complete  ere  the  full  power  can  be  felt.  If,  then, 
the  Divine  Love  has  potence  or  energy  as  its  minister, 
this  potence  must  be  susceptible  of  degrees  of  activity 
and  direction  of  movement,  ruled  by  the  degrees  of 
such  reciprocity.  The  more  completely  the  Divine 
Love  is  met,  the  more  the  power  exercised  fills  the 
purpose  of  the  Divine  will,  and  the  evolution  of  the 
idea  is  quickened.  This  power  may  and  must  reach 
the  souls  reciprocating  in  the  entirety  of  their 
concrete  being,  and  act  upon  every  element  of  the 
same,  physical  and  mental  as  well  as  moral  ;  which 
saying  is  more  or  less  identical  with  the  Scripture 
declaration  that  the  Divine  Glory  receives  incre- 
ments from  the  glorification  of  the  creature.  Thus 
only  through  and  by  means  of  this  reciprocation  is 
the  fullest  moral  force  created,  and  the  physical  move- 
ments are  thereby  determined  and  flow  more  and 
more  in  correspondence.  They  are  ruled  by  the 
needs  and  the  speed  of  the  ethical  and  religious  pro- 
gress. The  moral  condition  of  the  created  spiritual 
souls  in  the  universe  (whether  they  be  comprised 
within  the  limits  of  this  planet  or  not)  thus  conditions 


270  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

the  whole  physical  movement  of  the  same.  There  is 
no  avoidance  of  this  conclusion,  without  losing  in 
thought  the  unity  of  the  universe,  and  separating  the 
moral  and  the  physical  into  two  independent  spheres ; 
or  else  without  degrading  all  moral  into  mere  physical 
movement,  and  thereby  denying  altogether  the  ex- 
istence of  the  moral  ;  the  weakness  of  which  latter 
philosophy  has  been  heretofore  displayed. 

Thus  the  possibility  of  response  to  Christian  prayer, 
and  to  all  other  prayer  so  far  as  it  is  truly  such,  is 
legitimated.  Prayer,  in  the  true  spirit,  being  a  loving 
response,  implying  an  elimination  of  all  alien  elements, 
and  a  concentration  of  the  pure  spiritual  religious 
elements,  so  as  to  constitute,  in  variant  degrees  of 
closeness,  the  personal  relation,  is  thus  an  affluent  in 
the  returning  current,  a  contribution  to  the  incense 
cloud  which  rises  from  the  entire  created  universe, 
and  adds  an  increment  to  the  moral  force  of  the  same. 
The  love  of  the  Creator  can  flow  forth  more  freely 
and  fully  as  the  praying  one  becomes  capable  of  re- 
turning it.  And  the  ends  and  purposes  of  this  Di- 
vine loving  outflow  enable  a  correspondent  change  in 
the  physical  movement.  The  purpose  being  the  in- 
tensification of  the  loving  spirit,  the  healing,  chasten- 
ing, and  blessing  of  the  same,  and  the  relating  it  to 
the  vast  circle  of  spiritual  needs  which  have  the  ulti- 
mate consummation  as  their  purpose,  the  currents  and 
direction  of  physical  force  must  follow  the  guidance 
and  meet  the  requirements  of  the  ethical  force  thus 
undergoing  and  exhibiting  increase.  A  priori  this 
position  is  impregnable  ;  and  though  a  posteriori  facts 
do  not  demonstrate  it,  they  do  not  contradict  it,  but 
occasionally   confirm   it,   and    the  vibration   between 


THE  HOL  Y  SPIRIT 'S  A  CTIVITY.  271 

the  confirmation  and  the  apparent  contradiction  is  the 
conflict  of  faith,  and  the  means  for  the  acquirement 
of  human  virtue  or  spiritual  strength. 

As  ethical  changes  are  ordinarily  not  abrupt,  so  the 
correspondent  physical  change  and  adaptation  are 
not  abrupt  and  at  once  discoverable ;  and  are  some- 
times discovered  only  afar  off,  and  after  long  disci- 
pline. If  the  ethical  change  should  ever  be  abrupt, 
an  abrupt  physical  change  becomes  thinkable  and  pos- 
sible, and  history  shows  us  some  such  as  actual. 

Thus  it  appears  that  the  response  to  prayer  comes 
not  by  violation  of  natural  law,  nor  by  counteracting 
the  physical  forces,  but  by  removing  impediments  in 
the  way  of  their  free  and  legitimate  movement.  The 
ethical  force  in  the  entire  organism  has  its  multitudi- 
nous points  of  temporary  concentration  ;  and  the 
physical  movement  is  correspondent  and  adaptive 
thereto.  It  follows  it  by  a  law  as  imperious  as  the 
attracted  thing  follows  the  magnet.  This  is  not  in- 
terfering with  natural  law,  as  may  be  superficially 
thought,  but  simply  the  evidence  that  natural  law  is 
not  meaningless,  unworthy  of  regard,  and  that  it  could 
not,  if  separated  from  the  spiritual  ends,  give  us  any 
true  knowledge. 

The  energy  in  the  universe,  of  which  the  physical 
forces  (so  called)  are  variant  forms,  is  the  activity  of 
the  Holy  Spirit.  This  energy  we  think,  however,  as 
limited,  and  that  there  is  no  increase  or  diminution 
of  the  sum  of  force.  This  requires  to  think  the  phys- 
ical universe,  as  within  our  actual  or  possible  knowl- 
edge, as  also  limited.  But  the  idea  of  infinity  (of 
which  space  is  the  symbol,  and  brings  the  idea  within 
the  exercise  yet  the  failure  of  imagination,  which  ex- 


272  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

ercise  and  failure  is  the  emotion  of  sublimity)  is  as 
imperious  a  mental  requirement  as  the  idea  of  causal- 
ity, and  requires  to  think  in  the  First  Principle  an  in- 
exhaustible energy.  But  into  such  possibilities  of  exis- 
tence our  knowledge  does  not  pass  ;  and  our  actual 
knowledge  requires  to  think  the  universe  as  limited. 
All  forces  then  are  variant  forms  of  one,  by  mutual 
correlation  accomplishing  the  concrete  results,  and  they 
are  classifiable  only  according  to  the  ends  immediate 
or  hypothecated,  and  as  they  are  immediate  or  remote 
in  their  effects.  As  then  each  form  of  force  has  its 
immediate,  proximate,  and  remote  end,  and  these  ends 
are  correlated,  so  the  entire  sum  of  energy  has  its  ulti- 
mate end.  To  think  this  to  be  a  mere  cyclical  move- 
ment in  the  physical  realm,  an  alternation  of  solidifi- 
cation, attenuation,  and  solidification  and  attenuation 
aerain,  of  cold  and  heat,  and  that  the  force  in  the  uni- 
verse  may  die  out  and  all  come  to  rest  and  begin 
again,  is  out  of  all  analogy,  and  destitute  of  proof. 
Moreover,  it  has  its  own  a  priori  difficulty,  for  if  this 
movement  or  force  had  a  beginning,  it  may  be  resup- 
plied  ;  and  if  it  had  no  beginning,  it  can  have  no  end. 
All  this  merely  physical  career,  however  following 
law,  has  no  real  method.  It  is  unworthy  of  human 
thought  except  as  it  serves  to  enrich  the  human  mind, 
to  furnish  it  the  means  for  interaction,  and  supply  it  with 
beauty  and  enjoyment.  Physical  movements  only  inter- 
est us  as  related  to  mental  apprehension,  and  in  this  is 
their  final  cause.  The  very  beauty  discovered  in  them 
shows  that  they  must  be  regarded  as  free,  therefore  as 
related  to  thought,  and  in  themselves  full  of  enjoy- 
ment. That  all  conscious  souls  shall  share  this  enjoy- 
ment is  the  end  of  all  physical  movement  and  change ; 


THE  HOLY  SPIRITS  ACTIVITY.  273 

and  this  requires  that  the  environment  shall  be  ulti- 
mately correspondent  to  these  subjective  aspirations, 
and  be  fluent  for  the  ideal  commonwealth  of  love. 

All  physical  movement  is  then  the  activity  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  and  respects  the  far-off  purpose.  This 
activity  is  only  so  far  mystical,  then,  as  it  eludes  our 
present  understanding.  With  the  increase  of  knowl- 
edge the  region  of  the  mystical  shrinks.  Our  attain- 
ments, scientific  and  psychologic,  are  continually  re- 
moving many  things  from  the  region  of  the  mystical 
into  that  of  the  intelligible.  So  then,  in  the  perfect 
state,  whatever  is  now  mystical  in  the  universe  will  be 
understood.  All  between  the  actual  facts  and  the  ab- 
stract energy  will  be  illumined.  This  energy  cannot  be 
analyzed,  nor  needs  to  be.  It  can  only  be  thought  as 
simple  self-consciousness,  under  the  conditions  which 
are  required  to  regard  the  First  Principle  as  existent. 
Its  reflection  is  our  created-self-consciousness,  in 
which  while  our  own  force  is  but  a  form  of  this  ener- 
gy, we  determine  the  end  of  it  as  individual  or  uni- 
versal ;  and  thus,  as  before  said,  the  content  of  our  use 
of  it  is  all  God's,  while  the  moral  form  is  all  our  own. 
The  Divine  Energy  is  only  imaginable  as  conscious 
freedom  and  unlimited  liberty,  based  upon  love  and 
moving  in  the  sphere  of  the  Divine  Glory.  To  know 
more  of  it  would  be  to  pass  beyond  the  bounds  of 
creaturehood,  to  lose  the  finite  in  the  infinite,  to  re- 
produce in  ourselves  the  Divine  consciousness.  We 
may,  indeed,  grow  more  and  more  into  this,  but  there 
is  an  infinite  reserve  in  it  which  we  may  penetrate  to 
all  eternity  yet  can  never  exhaust.  It  is  exhilarating 
to  the  human  mind  to  think  that  it  is  allowed  to  push 
back  its  knowledge  to  this  verge,  to  trace  all  changes 

Vol.  II. 


274  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

back  through  their  media,  to  the  Divine  activity.  This 
meeting  of  its  aspiration  exalts,  yet  humbles  as  the 
result  of  its  exaltation. 

Many  knowledges  that  we  are  now  struggling  after 
we  shall  reach.  Even  all  the  conditions  of  life  may 
yet  be  discovered.  Even  now,  having  the  material, 
and  knowing  the  required  relations,  we  can  produce 
livine  creatures  at  will.  But  it  matters  not  whether  we 
shall  ever  smooth  over  the  step  from  the  chemical  to 
the  vital.  Should  we  do  so,  we  are  met  still  by  the  Di- 
vine Energy  producing  one  class  of  existences  under 
one  set  of  conditions,  and  another  under  another. 

So  far  then  as  the  end  is  discoverable  for  knowl- 
edge, the  needed  activity  of  the  Holy  Spirit  may  cease 
to  be  mystical,  or  rather  be  reduced  to  its  form  of 
pure  energy,  which  is  unsusceptible  of  further  analy- 
sis. So  far  as  the  end  is  remote  and  not  illumined 
for  knowledge,  the  process  between  the  pure  energy 
and  this  result  is  still  mystical.  For  this  reason  the 
acceptance  of  this  truth  is  still  within  the  province  of 
faith, — which  is  nothing  else  than  the  deep  convic- 
tion, unseduced  by  all  shows  to  the  contrary,  that 
moral  ends  are  paramount.  When  then  the  soul, 
acting  upon  this  instinct,  drawn  by  this  spiritual  gravi- 
tation, endeavors  the  personal  relation,  and  concen- 
trates its  loving  response  in  prayer,  the  object  and 
intent  of  this  prayer  upon  the  praying  subject  himself, 
(whether  he  so  think  it  or  not,)  is  related  to  the  end 
to  be  attained  for  the  entire  human  organism,  and  the 
universe  to  which  it  is  related.  The  mystical  move- 
ment, so  far  as  needful  to  be  hypothecated,  and  the 
providential  movement  coalesce,  and  prove  to  be  one 
and  the  same,  not  capable  of  abstraction,  but  only  by 


THE  HOLY  SPIRITS  ACTIVITY.  275 

mutual  relation  concrete.  But  the  mystical  activity 
and  its  result  upon  the  subject  himself  is  first  in 
thought,  and  the  physical  adaptation  subsequent. 
But  we  have  before  endeavored  to  show  that  any 
change  wrought  upon  the  moral  being,  or  the  will, 
and  any  consequent  change  wrought  upon  the  physi- 
cal structure,  and  all  correspondent  adaptation  of  the 
environment,  depend  first  upon  some  change  wrought 
in  the  conscious  mind,  or  at  least  in  the  rudimental 
consciousness, — in  the  first  case  giving  or  clarifying 
some  mental  presentation,  and  illumining  the  truth, 
— in  the  latter  case  producing  in  the  rudimental  con- 
sciousness the  conditions  for  the  purer  and  truer  self- 
consciousness.  The  question  then  remains, — how  is 
this  accomplished  ?  Is  it  through  physical  media, 
freeing  from  clogs  the  brain  movement,  and  quicken- 
ing its  activity,  or  is  it  by  action  upon  the  pure  psychi- 
cal consciousness  beneath  the  brain  movement  ?  The 
former  would  seem  to  be  a  reversal  of  the  required 
method,  and  is  rather  a  cyclical  process,  i.  e.,  certain 
changes  are  wrought  upon  the  physical  being  where- 
by the  mental  presentation  becomes  clarified,  and  an 
increment  of  moral  strength  ensues,  to  which  physi- 
cal change,  ab  extra,  is  afterwards  adapted.  The 
latter  is  the  simpler  solution,  if  on  any  grounds  other 
than  these,  or  on  these  alone,  we  think  such  a  con- 
sciousness independent  of  brain-conditions  to  be 
actual  or  possible.  The  thought  emerges  a  priori, 
but  still  awaits  a  posteriori  confirmation,  and  here  is 
still  a  field  for  scientific  investigation.1     If  the  latter 

1  This  is  not  the  place  for  the  accumulation  of  facts  to  establish  this  thesis, 
which  are  many,  yet  the  author  begs  leave,  in  this  connection,  to  refer  to  the 
chapter  on  "  Dreaming,"  in  his  work  on  "  The  Beautiful  and  the  Sublime," 
where  some  evidence  is  afforded  for  it. 


276  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

then  be  the  method,  and  the  activity  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  is  upon  this  pure  psychical  consciousness,  then 
it  is  still  mystical,  and  must  ever  remain  so  while  we 
are  in  this  militant  state.  We  can  never  illumine  the 
connection  between  the  pure  Divine  energy  and  this 
pure  psychical  consciousness.  Yet  any  change 
wrought  in  this  must  subside  into  the  brain  con- 
sciousness ere  it  can  find  expression.  It  seems  to  be 
taken  for  granted  in  the  Christian  Scriptures  that  the 
movement  of  the  Holy  Spirit  must  ever  be  mystical. 
Our  knowledge  may,  indeed,  be  pushed  so  far  as  to 
show  that  human  consciousness  is  capable  of  relation, 
change,  and  influence  through  other  than  intelligible 
media.  Much  of  our  experience,  when  carefully  scru- 
tinized, leads  to  this  conclusion.  The  clarification  of 
the  truth,  its  attractiveness  and  power,  and  resultant 
increment  of  strength  to  the  holy  will,  seem  not  so 
much  a  process  of  adding  any  thing,  as  of  clearing 
away  of  impediments,  of  clouds  and  perturbations, 
and  the  subsidence  of  the  world  in  which  imagination 
plays.  After  earnest  prayer  we  find  that  the  disturb- 
ing considerations  have  subsided  and  left  the  mind 
free  to  escape  the  temporal,  and  abide  in  the  eternal. 
Again,  that  the  latter  explanation  given  is  the  true 
one,  receives  additional  force  for  our  thought,  when 
we  consider  the  utterances  of  the  men  inspired.  We 
think  them  inspired,  because  here  the  whole  mental 
movement  is  so  unique  as  to  be  hardly  susceptible  of 
explanation  by  supposing  an  improvement  in  the  ordi- 
nary brain-consciousness.  These  minds  seem  to  look 
from  a  centre  which  we  cannot  reach,  and  to  look 
through  a  clearer  air  into  a  larger  field  than  ours. 
What  they  report  we  can  indeed  follow,  but  cannot 


THE  HOLY  SPIRITS  ACTIVITY.  277 

weave  into  a  synthesis  at  all  points  harmonious.  In 
all  truth  needful  to  constitute  their  system  they  agree 
with  each  other,  and  we  cannot  think  a  controversy 
between  them,  in  essential  matters,  to  have  been  pos- 
sible. This  profound  interior  agreement  cannot  be 
naturalistically  explained.  We  slowly  endeavor  after 
the  same  state,  but  in  the  progress  pass  through  a 
period  of  toil  and  controversy,  showing  that  our  sub- 
jective apprehensions  of  the  truth  are  not  entirely 
identical  with  theirs.  This  may  indeed  be  so,  because 
we  receive  at  second-hand  what  they  received  at  first- 
hand ;  and  because  of  the  confessed  imperfection  of 
all  human  means  of  expression.  For  this  they,  as 
well  as  we  do,  had  to  avail  themselves  of  the  imple- 
ments of  the  brain-consciousness.  They  saw  the  truth 
clearly,  and  in  its  timeless  relations  beheld  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  idea,  but  could  only  express  it  figuratively 
and  through  humanly  invented  language.  Hence  we 
often  think  of  them  that  they  were  wiser  than  their 
words  indicate.  But  towards  the  possibility  of  this 
intuitive  consciousness  the  life  of  the  Church  must  be 
continually  urging  its  way,  and  our  inspiration,  though 
of  the  same  kind  as  theirs,  and  differing  so  greatly  in 
degree,  will  be  till  the  end  diminishing  the  degrees  of 
difference.  In  ordinary  Christian  consciousness  we 
are  through  the  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  enabled 
to  see  clearly  within  a  certain  range,  and  for  the  im- 
mediate individual  need  and  providential  purpose. 
In  the  case  of  the  inspired  men  the  range  is  wider,  yet 
not  infinite,  and  respects  the  wider  and  remoter  pur- 
pose. We  appropriate  bit  by  bit  their  knowledges. 
Sometimes  they  hint  that  they  possess  knowledge 
which  they  cannot  express,  or  are  not  permitted  to 


278  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

express  ;  or  if  they  attempt  it  they  do  it  by  symbols 
which  puzzle  us  still.  If  the  Christian  Church  is  ever 
to  understand  the  Apocalypse  of  St.  John,  it  will  show 
by  such  understanding  that  it  has  grown  into  the 
prophetic  consciousness.  And  this  is  an  additional 
reason  to  think  that  all  Inspiration  is  the  same  in 
kind  ;  and  that  even  in  the  prophetic  consciousness 
no  new  faculty  has  been  superadded  to  human  nature, 
to  be  afterwards  taken  away  or  not,  but  that  the  ordi- 
nary though  latent  capacities  and  powers  of  the 
religious  soul  have  been  availed  of  and  quickened,  to 
produce  these  extraordinary  results.  It  had  not  been 
worth  their  while  to  utter  what  seems  to  us  obscure, 
if  it  were  to  remain  forever  obscure ;  nor  can  we 
think  it  of  God's  devising,  could  we  not  at  length  by 
patient  study  discover  the  fulness  of  its  meaning. 
These  writings  are  then  a  fountain  of  knowledge,  as 
yet  very  far  from  exhaustion.  The  understanding  of 
them  will  follow  pari  passu  with  the  growth  of  the 
sacrificial  spirit,  and  also  with  the  knowledge  of  na- 
ture and  of  man  himself.  The  knowledge  of  God's 
word  will  follow  the  knowledge  of  his  deed,  and  the 
knowledge  of  his  deed  may  follow  upon  the  study  of 
his  word.     They  are  not  two  knowledges,  but  one. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

ESCHATOLOGY, THE  RESURRECTION  AND  GLORIFICATION 

OF  JESUS  CHRIST. 

It  is  indispensable  to  the  doctrine  of  the  humanity 
of  Christ  that  He  should  be  thought  to  have  died  and 
to  have  risen  from  the  dead  ;  but  it  is  not  sufficient 
to  regard  this  resurrection  as  the  arbitrary  or  super- 
induced reward  for  his  sacrificial  obedience  termi- 
nated upon  the  cross.  This  mode  of  expression 
is  permissible,  and  is  one  way  of  stating  the 
truth  ;  but  it  does  not  do  it  profoundly  or  exhaust- 
ively. The  sacrifice,  being  the  uttermost  attain- 
ment of  the  loving  spirit,  not  only  in  purity  but 
in  intensity,  stands  in  a  causal  relation  to  the  revival 
and  physical  change.  It  is  not  merely  a  temporal 
sequence,  but  an  illustration  of  the  dialectic  order 
required  by  the  idea  of  mankind  involved  in  the 
primal  creative  act,  and  to  be  accomplished  by  the 
evolution  of  the  human  soul,  and  the  realization  of 
this  idea.  Such  is  the  absolute,  necessary,  and  unal- 
terable constitution  of  the  universe  ;  and  this  is  the 
ideal  relation  of  a  free  self-consciousness  to  it,  that 
mental  and  physical  evolution  should  proceed  pari 
passu  with  moral  evolution  and  progress,  this  latter 
including  as  its  eternal  and  preserving  principle  the 
religious  or  personal  relation.  Thus,  when  moral 
perfection   is   reached,   the   relation    to    the  outlying 

279 


280  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

physical  environment  becomes  the  normal  and  ideal 
one  ;  and  the  mental  outlook  towards  all  truth,  all  the 
Divine  thoughts  perpetually  and  inexhaustibly  mani- 
festing themselves,  is  from  the  right  centre,  from 
which  regard  all  things  harmoniously  arrange  them- 
selves, and  the  vision  becomes  forever  more  and  more 
penetrating  towards  the  forever  receding  circumfer- 
ence. Thus  the  domination  of  nature,  in  her  lower  and 
disintegrating  forces,  slowly  encroached  upon  by  hu- 
man activity  and  advancing  knowledge,  through  the 
individual  human  life  and  through  the  career  of  the 
human  race,  is  at  length,  and  seemingly  per  saltum, 
put  back  and  conquered.  The  relation  is  reversed, 
and  he  who  was  overcome  now  rules.  Nature  is 
pliant  and  subservient,  and  presents  no  more  impedi- 
ment to  the  free  spiritual  soul  ;  nay,  furnishes  mate- 
rial for  creative  powers  with  which  the  perfected  soul 
may  now  be  entrusted.  This  is  what  St.  Peter  meant 
by  saying  that  his  Christian  brethren  should  be  par- 
takers of  the  Divine  nature  ;  that  they  should  share 
the  Divine  cpvak  (not  the  Divine  ouffia),  viz.  :  those 
attributes  which  are  transcendant  and  relative  to  this 
actual  universe  in  any  possible  phase  of  its  develop- 
ment. 

Thus  humanity,  in  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ,  dis- 
plays its  idea  as  realized,  and  we  see  in  the  Glorified 
One  what  man  was  intended  to  be,  had  moral  evil  not 
entered  the  human  race.  The  power  of  the  free  hu- 
man soul  of  Jesus  has  become  unlimited,  and  nature 
is  no  longer  hostile,  or  obstructive,  or  unbeautiful,  but 
subservient  and  everywhere  beautiful.  Beauty  and 
sublimity  may  enroll  themselves  into  more  complicated 
harmonies  ;  and  where  before  man  found  terror,  he 


ESCHATOLOGY.  281 

will  find  only  grandeur  and  loveliness.  This  is  the 
idea  of  Resurrection,  or  bodily  Glorification,  that  he 
whose  will  has  become  forever  coincident  with  and 
intelligent  of  the  Father's  will  may  now  use  nature, 
the  sum  of  material  forces  and  laws,  for  any  subjective 
purpose,  may  do  any  thing  with  her,  except  to  annihi- 
late her ;  for  this,  if  it  were  thinkable,  would  be  to 
prove  false  to  his  own  idea,  would  be  to  sweep  away 
all  the  manifestations  of  thought  and  the  manifold 
varieties  of  enjoyment.  Therefore  the  free  and  per- 
fected soul  is  not  by  its  perfection  out  of  relation  to 
nature.  She  still  is  the  medium  of  the  Divine 
thoughts  and  of  the  intercourse  between  spiritual 
souls.  Hence  every  soul  has  its  own  body  still, 
through  which  it  may  express  its  true  self,  a  body,  too, 
which  is  not  severed  from  its  past,  but  bears  the 
marks  of  it,  by  which  its  physical  story  may  be  read  ; 
a  body,  however,  whose  lines  and  features  and  whole 
constitution  is  now  the  harmonized  expression  of  its 
true  character, — though  perfect,  idiosyncratic  still. 
Thus  the  spiritual  soul  of  Jesus  had  its  own  body, 
and  bore  the  marks  of  the  nails  and  the  spear  wound. 
This  is  still  the  medium  of  his  communication  with  his 
brethren  and  his  fellow-men.  Reciprocation  and  the 
possibility  of  mutual  consciousness  will  still  be  through 
these  media,  and  thus  they  will  prove  to  have  been 
not  wasted  or  only  of  temporary,  but  of  everlasting 
use  and  worth.  Yet  neither  Jesus  now  nor  any  per- 
fected soul  after  its  glorification,  need  be  thought  as 
limited  to  this  by  any  spatial  requirement  or  natural 
laws,  but  to  be  able  to  fuse  himself  into  nature  at  any 
and  every  part,  to  live  in  and  enjoy  all  the  play  of  her 
forces.    A  "  spiritual  body  "  is  not,  then,  a  body  made 


282  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

of  finer  and  more  tenuous  matter,  for  this,  however 
far  carried,  would  not  give  it  any  better  title  to  the 
epithet  than  matter  in  its  grossest  form  possesses.  It 
is  rather  a  body  whose  natural  laws  are  at  the  service 
of  spiritual  laws,  and  which  presents  no  impediment 
to  the  spiritualized  will,  a  body  adjusted  to  and  har- 
monized with  the  needs  and  requirements  of  the 
holy,  expanding,  and  aspiring  mind-soul,  and  affording 
no  limitation  to  its  thought  and  enjoyment.  Pure 
abstract  spirit  nowhere  exists.  It  only  exists  as 
concrete  ;  hence  as  involving  immanent  relations,  as 
loving  and  having  its  love  reciprocated,  as  active  and 
therefore  as  having  field  for  activity,  in  which  are  the 
possibilities  of  increment,  variation,  enrichment,  and 
exhaustless  enjoyment.  God  is  not  pure  abstract 
spirit,  but  exists  as  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit,  mu- 
tually loving,  and  sharing  the  Glory  out  of  which  by 
determination  the  universe  has  been  developed.  God 
is  not  spirit  as  an  abstraction  of  the  sum  of  ideas,  but 
spirit  as  active  in  realizing  thought  under  the  impetus 
of  love ;  and  thus  only  is  concrete,  real,  and  existing. 
Man's  natural  body  potentially  and  ideally  exists  in 
the  germ  and  is  developed  therefrom.  This  germ  is 
not  merely  physical.  Its  vitality  is  not  out  of  relation 
to  spirit.  It  carries  with  it  the  thought  and  the  idea 
of  its  ancestry  as  determining  influences.  It  has  al- 
ready spiritual  characteristics  and  tendencies.  But  it 
is  a  natural  body  still,  for  it  cannot  transcend  its  own 
limitations.  The  spiritual  soul  which  deals  with  and 
informs  the  material  it  assimilates  is  not  perfectly 
spiritualized,  i.  e.,  does  not  and  cannot  lift  itself  out  of 
its  own  imperfection  and  bondage.  When  its  central 
principle  is  reached  and  purified,  which  we  have  seen 


ESCHATOLOGY.  283 

is  done  by  the  love  of  God  in  Christ  eliciting  its  pure 
response  of  love,  its  inner  potentialities  may  be  real- 
ized. Through  the  accompanying  and  regenerating 
influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit  a  change  is  wrought  in 
its  physical  structure,  and  the  spiritual  body  weaves 
itself  from  this  germ  into  articulation.  The  natural 
body  must  die,  i.  e.,  cease  to  exist  as  a  set  of  relations, 
that  a  new  synthesis  may  be  made  ;  i.  e.,  that  the  vital 
principle  now  spiritualized  may  relate  the  physical 
realm  in  a  new  manner  and  at  length  accomplish  the 
spiritual  body. 

In  the  story  of  Jesus  Christ  we  have  the  ideal  ca- 
reer of  man  outlined.  We  see  that  after  his  resurrec- 
tion nature  presents  no  impediment  to  him  ;  that  He 
manifests  himself  to  his  own  when  He  will,  and  as  He 
will  ;  that  He  has  his  own  body  still,  with  the  marks 
of  his  history  upon  it,  though  wonderfully  transfigured, 
harmonized,  and  beautified,  to  accord  with  the  soul 
which  can  suffer  no  longer,  can  doubt  and  hesitate  no 
longer, — and,  though  not  in  consequence  of  this 
change  immediately,  yet  recognizable  still.  While  the 
economy  of  his  Church  demands  it  He  shows  himself 
to  his  disciples  and  then  withdraws  himself  from  them. 
If  we  regard  him  as  in  the  heavenly  state  immediately 
after  his  resurrection,  i.  e.,  to  have  assumed  the  ulti- 
mate relation  to  his  Father  and  to  the  universe,  then 
his  visible  departure  or  ascension  may  be  regarded  as 
only  the  token  that  He  was  no  longer  to  communi- 
cate with  his  own  by  sight  and  hearing,  but  otherwise 
and  through  mystical  relations  accomplished  by  the 
Holy  Spirit ;  yet  his  freedom  and  unrestraint  in  this 
particular  is  evidenced  by  his  twice  overpassing  this 
method,  and  making  himself  visible  to  Stephen  and 


284  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

audible  to  Paul.  But  if,  after  the  resurrection  and 
before  the  ascension,  He  be  not  regarded  as  in  the 
heavenly  state,  though  his  words  to  Mary  do  not  neces- 
sarily imply  this,  then  we  have  before  us  the  need 
of  thinking  some  meaning  and  necessity  for  this  in- 
terval other  than  the  economic  one  of  adapting  the 
required  instruction  to  the  humanly  limited  capacities 
of  his  apostles,  of  thinking  some  process  which  his 
humanity  still  needed  for  its  perfection.  The  solu- 
tion may  be  found  by  regarding  him  not  as  the  per- 
fected individual  man,  but  as  the  head  and  centre  of 
the  new  organism  ;  and  that  the  current  between  it 
and  him  may  be  free  in  its  flow  He  needs  to  be 
brought  into  full  ethical  and  mental  connection  with 
his  brethren,  or  offspring.  Not  till  such  is  accom- 
plished is  He  as  human  in  the  heavenly  state.  This 
thought,  too,  as  has  been  observed,  furnishes  the  ex- 
planation of  St.  Paul's  words.  "  Then  shall  the  Son 
also  himself  be  subject  to  him  that  put  all  things  under 
him,"  i.  e.}  when  the  process  begun  during  this  inter- 
val before  the  ascension  is  extended  to  the  whole 
body  of  the  redeemed  and  regenerate.  Thus  the 
conditions  for  time-development  are  still  operative, 
and  are  imperious  ;  and  He,  who  has  already  ob- 
tained complete  victory  over  every  natural  force,  and 
over  space,  is  still  time-fettered,  and  only  by  enduring 
time  can  conquer  it.  What  relation  is  still  and  con- 
tinuously possible  and  actual  between  him  and  the 
believer  will  be  considered  hereafter. 

But  in  order  to  learn  from  his  story  and  example 
what  is  the  ideal  career  of  man,  we  have  still  to  con- 
sider the  need  and  the  significance  of  the  interval 
between   his  death  and  his  resurrection.     We  have 


ESCHATOLOGY.  285 

already  said  something  upon  this  topic,  which  it  may 
not  be  amiss,  in  this  connection  and  to  some  extent, 
to  repeat.  We  can  only  learn  our  own  destiny  by 
regarding  his  career,  and  this  part  of  it  is  not  the 
account  of  an  act  and  process  purely  Divine,  but  is  a 
part  of  his  human  history,  and  necessary  to  the  com- 
plete development  and  the  perfection  of  his  humanity. 


CHAPTER   XXV. 

THE    INTERMEDIATE    STATE. 

We  have  seen  that  in  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ, 
and  as  the  result  of  the  ultimate  of  sacrifice  in  his 
death,  the  relation  of  the  human  spiritual  soul  to 
nature  as  the  complex  of  physical  material  and  forces, 
is  reversed  ;  and  that  He  can  no  longer  find  impedi- 
ment in  and  succumb  to  these,  but  that  they  are 
subservient  to  his  will.  In  his  person  alone  is  this 
reversal  completely  attained.  In  every  offshoot  from 
the  human  stock,  naturally  propagated,  the  common 
disease  and  derangement  stand  in  the  way  of  such 
victory  and  reversal.  In  each  individual  case  the 
ethical  fault  remains  ;  and  inasmuch  as  the  full  poten- 
tialities of  the  individual  can  only  be  elicited  through 
his  relation  to  the  totality,  this  victory  and  reversal 
can  only  be  attained  by  the  individual  when  they  are 
attained  in  and  by  the  totality,  or  the  new  crea- 
tion in  Christ.  "  Christ  the  first-fruits, — afterwards 
they  that  are  Christ's  at  his  coming."  But  this  career, 
which  belongs  to  and  describes  the  totality,  is  antici- 
pated in  his  person,  which  thus  becomes  the  source  of 
all  the  needed  development  to  be  reached  through  the 
activity  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  In  this,  his  history,  we 
have  outlined  the  ideal  and  normal  lot  of  the  new 
humanity.  We  have  seen  that  through  the  triumph 
accomplished  in  his  death  not  only  are  all  physical 

286 


THE  INTERMEDIA  TE  ST  A  TE.  287 

limitations  removed,  but  all  limitation  to  mental 
activity  and  insight.  The  human  consciousness  has 
become,  so  far  as  its  idea  permits,  in  its  content  and 
in  all  objective  relations,  identical  with  the  Divine 
consciousness,  and  regards  the  sum  of  the  Divine 
thoughts,  and  the  evolution  of  the  same,  from  the 
same  centre.  This  again  is  to  be  realized  for  the 
totality,  the  new  creation,  and  for  each  individual  as 
member  of  the  same,  yet  through  a  never  ending  pro- 
cess. The  relation  of  the  spiritual  soul-consciousness 
to  the  universe  before  death,  and  that  after  resurrec- 
tion, glorification  and  illumination  being  thus  con- 
trasted,— the  difficult  enquiry  now  remains,  what  is 
the  relation  of  the  spiritual  soul  to  the  universe  in  the 
interval  between  ?  Here  speculation  wanders  along 
very  narrow  lines,  and  needs  to  avail  itself  of  any  and 
every  aid,  whether  from  revelation,  philosophy,  or 
science. 

To  think  the  spiritual  soul  out  of  all  relation  to 
concrete  existence,  and  dwelling  in  a  realm  of  ab- 
stractions or  of  naked  thoughts  and  remembered 
images  merely,  has  no  support  from  science,  phil- 
osophy, or  revelation.  The  latter  represents  inter- 
course between  spiritual  souls  as  possible, — intimates 
companionship,  sympathy,  and  emotion.  Moreover, 
to  relegate  it  to  the  mass  of  existing  thoughts  and 
past  images  merely  is  to  sever  it  from  the  onward 
progress  of  the  universe,  to  shut  it  out  from  all  devel- 
opment and  any  new  elements  of  knowledge.  Its  task 
then  would  be  to  understand  the  past  without  the 
light  shed  upon  it  from  the  present  and  the  future. 
And  thus  to  think  it  is  to  create  a  chasm  and  clean 
separation  between  the   elements  of   human  nature. 


288  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

1 1  is  no  longer  a  soul  related  by  its  body  to  the  physi- 
cal universe,  but  a  soul  abiding  only  in  the  vanished 
phantasmagorias  of  the  past.  It  is  without  organs, 
and  each  soul  is  either  shut  out  utterly  from  contact 
with  every  other  soul,  for  want  of  media,  or  else  is  in 
such  contact  by  direct  intuition ;  and  this,  the  summit 
of  mental  perfection,  is  attained  while  yet  ethical 
perfection  is  not  reached.  And  besides,  on  such  sup- 
position, the  sacred  adytum  which  constitutes  indi- 
viduality disappears,  since  every  soul  is  in  possession 
of  the  content  of  every  other  soul.  Also,  no  activity 
is  possible,  for  there  are  no  organs  for  it,  and  no 
mediay  no  material  for  use,  and  which  is  susceptible 
of  change.  Love  can  do  nothing  for  responsive  love. 
No  task  is  before  it  but  to  run  over  the  bewilder- 
ments of  the  past,  and  clear  up  its  mysteries,  and 
resolve  its  dissonances  into  harmonies.  This  may  be 
indeed  its  task,  and  a  part  of  the  intent  of  this  stadium 
of  existence.  But  for  this  it  is  not  needful  that  it 
should  be  cut  off  from  all  knowledge  of  the  passing 
present,  and  denied  any  outlook  into  and  anticipation 
of  the  future,  except  as  it  may  infer  it  from  its  knowl- 
edge of  the  past. 

In  what  is  related  in  the  Christian  Scriptures  some 
aid  is  given  to  throw  light  upon  these  enquiries. 
Companionship  is  indicated  by  Jesus'  words  to  the 
malefactor,  his  companion  in  crucifixion  ;  and  by  St. 
Paul's  anticipation  of  the  company  of  Christ.  And 
if  our  exegesis  of  the  famous  passage  in  St.  Peter's 
first  epistle  can  be  maintained,1  there  is  here  indi- 
cated that  active  intercourse  with  and  between  the 
spiritual  souls  in  safe-keeping  is  possible, — a  knowledge 

1  See  Appendix  E. 


THE  INTERMEDIATE  STATE.  289 

of  the  immediate  past,  of  the  passing,  and  a  glimpse 
of  the  future, — all  accomplished  through  a  faultless  re- 
statement. The  mystical  references  in  the  Apocalypse 
of  St.  John  indicate  for  the  departed  ones  knowledge 
of  the  present,  and  the  conditions  for  changing  emo- 
tion. All  this,  and  the  frequent  use  of  words  indi- 
cating place,  and  pre-supposing  space,  show  that  these 
need  not  be  abstracted,  any  more  than  time  can  be 
abstracted  ;  and  that  some  relation  to  the  universe  as 
a  developing  process  still  remains, — that  the  realms 
of  the  material  and  the  spiritual  are  still  unified  in  the 
soul,  and  cannot  in  thought  or  in  fact  be  separated, 
any  more  than  God  and  his  Glory  can  be  separated, 
except  in  a  doubtful  abstraction. 

Imagination  here  can  give  us  no  aid.  It,  entrusted 
with  this  task,  would  simply  give  us  a  more  subtle 
and  refined  reproduction  of  our  present  organism. 
History  is  full  of  its  vagaries  in  this  particular,  and 
we  have  stories  of  ghosts,  visible  and  audible  yet  not 
tangible  ;  all  which  is  a  contradiction,  and  at  which 
science  laughs. 

We  know,  in  a  measure,  what  is  the  evolution  and 
the  description  of  our  present  mode  of  consciousness, 
and  that  it  comes  to  be  through  physical  organs 
adapted  to  the  material  realm.  To  these,  fitted  to 
moulds  and  complementary  elements  which  spirit  sup- 
plies, we  owe  all  our  ideas,  and  God  communicates 
his  thoughts  to  us  only  through  this  apparatus  ;  and 
does  not  transcend  but  uses  and  elevates  our  present 
faculties  (for  to  transcend  them  would  be  not  to  ele- 
vate but  to  degrade  humanity).  We  have  absolutely 
no  knowledge  in  which  some  determination  from  the 
physical  universe  is  not  an  element.     We  have  no 

Vol.  11. 


290  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

thought  which  we  can  put  into  words  and  make 
known  to  others,  or  clear  to  ourselves,  except  by 
availing  ourselves  of  the  a  posteriori  processes.  Our 
remembered  dreams  are  made  up  of  the  loose  debris 
of  our  past  experience  ;  and  even  if  it  be  true  that  the 
mind  is  most  active  in  deep  sleep,  and  works  with 
little  or  no  time-limitation,  it  still  combines  the  ma- 
terial of  past  knowledges. 

All  this  does  not  deny  that  knowledge  may  be 
determined  through  mystical  influences  ;  but  that,  to 
become  concrete  and  intelligible  to  others  and  clear 
to  ourselves,  it  must  pass  through  and  incorporate 
itself  with  and  adapt  itself  to  the  forms  of  our  em- 
pirical knowledge. 

Some  dreams  indeed  are  not  clearly  explicable  in 
the  ordinary  physiological  way,  and  cannot  without 
protest  be  reduced  to  automatism  T ;  and  if  not,  this 
helps  to  support  the  thesis  heretofore  maintained, 
that  even  now  we  may  think  otherwise  than  through 
brain  activity.  In  these  dreams,  volition,  defined  as 
the  spring  of  mental  energy  for  an  ideal  end,  is  not 
absent,  as  is  evidenced  by  the  combining  power 
shown  in  the  result,  which  may  sometimes  be  de- 
scribed before  it  vanishes.  The  will,  as  representing  the 
sum  of  all  the  faculties  quoad  any  result,  does  indeed 
seem  to  be  in  abeyance,  yet  is  apparent  in  perhaps  a 
purer  form.  In  these  dreams  more  than  memory  and 
fancy  are  shown.  The  unifying  power  of  imagination 
is  apparent,  and  thus  that  there  is  an  ideal  purpose. 
This  is  volition  and  not  automatism.  It  would  seem 
even   that  in    the    mental  activity  of   deepest  sleep, 

1  See  again  the  chapter  on  "  Dreaming  "  in  the  author's  treatise  on  "  The 
Beautiful  and  the  Sublime." 


THE  INTERMEDIATE  STATE.  291 

which  sometimes  intrudes  into  the  more  mixed  activ- 
ity of  automatic  brain-movement,  there  are  availed  of 
contributions  other  than  memory  can  furnish,  or  than 
brain-action  can  explain  ;  and  that  the  soul  has  de- 
scended into  the  depths  of  universal  consciousness, 
deals  with  the  ideas  and  essential  forms  of  things,  and 
disports  itself  with  larger  material,  much  of  which 
vanishes  the  moment  that  brain  activity  and  connec- 
tion with  the  phenomenal  world  are  resumed.  But 
there  is  an  objection  to  this  view  that,  if  it  can  be 
maintained,  is  fatal  to  it.  It  is,  as  is  asserted,  that  in 
all  dreams  whatever,  and  particularly  in  those  which 
are  nearest  to  the  dark  side  of  the  border-land,  there 
is  an  entire  absence  of  the  moral  distinction,  and  that 
the  conscience  is  entirely  extinct.  If  the  presence  of 
conscience  were  continually  manifest,  or  notably  in 
the  dreams  of  deepest  sleep  which  fall  into  memory 
only  as  they  mingle  with  automatic  ones,  it  would 
greatly  strengthen  the  argument  that  these  are  not 
explicable  simply  as  automatism.  The  present  author 
has  carefully  scrutinized  his  own  dreams,  since  this 
objection  was  suggested  to  his  mind,  and  has  obtained 
some  testimony  from  others,  and  is  convinced  that 
the  assertion  has  been  hastily  made,  though  by  high 
scientific  authority,  and  supported  by  many  cases  in 
illustration,1  that  the  moral  distinction  is  entirely  ab- 
sent in  dreams ;  and  thinks  rather  that  it  is  manifest 
there,  but  not  in  the  ordinary  form  ;  that  it  does  not 
characterize  actions  as  overt,  and  by  the  rules  and 
maxims  of  conventional  origin  and  the  fruit  of  expe- 
rience and  generalization,  but  that  the  dreaming  soul 

1  See    "Visions,    a   Study   of   False    Sight,"  by  Edward  H.  Clark,   M.D. 
Houghton,  Osgood  &  Go. 


292  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

regards  rather  and  only  the  motive-spring  and  the  end, 
and  thus  in  those  elements  and  relations  which  are  eter- 
nal and  not  temporal ;  that  the  co7itcnt  of  the  action  is 
unthought  of  or  regarded  as  indifferent,  while  the  moral 
form  remains  and  is  detectable  ;  in  short,  that  the  or- 
dinary moral  distinctions  which  depend  upon  the 
physical  realm  to  which  we  are  related  by  our  organ- 
ism disappear  or  are  disregarded,  while  those  which 
characterize  the  relation  of  spirit  to  spirit  remain  and 
flash  through  the  mixed  presentation.  The  author 
has  it  upon  testimony  as  valid  as  human  testimony 
can  be,  that  in  dreams  moral  questions  are  sometimes 
elaborately  argued  ;  and  that  remorse,  or  great  per- 
turbation of  conscience  attends  the  conviction  that 
one  has  mistaken  his  duty.  When  it  seems  other- 
wise, the  explanation  given  above  may  hold  true. 

No  individual  testimony  is  sufficient  here,  but  here 
is  a  field  for  observation,  and  for  analysis,  and  for 
psychological  investigation  which  is  yet  to  be  fully 
worked.  If,  however,  moral  distinctions  in  this  pure 
form  in  dreams  can  be  discovered,  it  is  an  additional 
argument  for  the  existence  of  a  pure  psychical  con- 
sciousness beneath  our  brain-consciousness.  This 
would  then,  and  must  be  regarded  as  fundamental, 
and  as  the  universal  basis  of  our  particular  brain- 
consciousness.  This  is  the  nucleus  in  which  moral 
distinctions  appear  in  pure  form  and  which  affects  the 
concrete  development.  If  the  spiritual  soul  is  such  a 
nucleus,  it  may  then  be  able  to  organize  itself  from 
the  Divine  Glory  in  its  pure  form,  or  at  least  other- 
wise determined  than  as  we  have  it  in  the  actual  uni- 
verse, and  establish  for  itself  media,  and  create  organs 
for  mutual  communication,  sympathy,  and  advance. 


THE  INTERMEDIA  TE  ST  A  TE.  293 

(If  we  utter  as  a  proposition  that, — time  exists  not 
after  death  for  the  released  soul,  we  use  words  with- 
out meaning,  which  we  contradict  in  our  very  next 
utterance  about  it.  Time  cannot  be  thought  away, 
for  it  is  the  form  of  created  spirit  life,  yet  the  domina- 
tion over  time  is  possible  since  it  is  divisible  infinite- 
ly, and  like  space  extends  as  interminably  inward  as 
outward.)  The  contrast  is  so  great  between  the  cal- 
culable and  ascertainable  time-movement  of  dreams 
resulting  from  the  automatic  action  of  the  brain,  and 
the  seeming  emancipation  from  time-limitations  sug- 
gested by  some  dreams,  as  to  lead  towards  the  notion 
above  given  that  the  spiritual  soul  as  such  is  not  an 
abstract  unit,  but  a  true  concrete,  and  hence  of  its  own 
inner  necessity  develops  into  an  organism  ;  that,  as  a 
soul,  it  is  related  to  the  Divine  Glory  in  some  of  its 
determined  forms  :  not  identical  with  its  form  in  the 
present  stadium  of  human  development,  nor  in  its 
pure  form  as  it  existed  from  eternity  for  Father,  Son, 
and  Holy  Spirit,  but  in  a  form  and  set  of  relations 
intermediate  between  the  two.  Some  such  relation  it 
is  absolutely  needful  to  think  to  meet  the  Scriptural 
declarations  ;  and  so  to  think  can  be  contradicted 
neither  by  philosophy  nor  science. 

This  mode  of  human  existence  and  consciousness, 
being  what  man  must  pass  through,  was  passed 
through  by  Jesus  Christ.  How  it  is  thinkable  and 
possible  that  the  last  generation  of  believers  on  the 
earth  will  not  pass  through  the  article  of  death,  nor 
have  this  intermediate  mode  of  consciousness,  nor 
need  such,  is  a  matter  for  independent  enquiry,  and  will 
be  considered  in  the  proper  place,  and  is  not  so  dif- 
ficult a  problem  as  it  seems. 


294  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

Aside  from  any  economic  uses  of  the  interval,  such 
as,  e.  g.f  his  preaching  to  the  spirits  under  guard,  it 
must  have  been  needful  for  Jesus'  own  human  devel- 
opment, at  that  period  of  the  world's  history,  that  He 
should  humanly  understand  his  own  death  by  con- 
trasting the  two  modes  of  consciousness.  And  as  He 
was  still  under  time-conditions  it  is  not  amiss  to  think 
that  the  passing  away  of  the  distractions  and  pertur- 
bations of  earthly  experience  was  not  instantaneous 
upon  the  article  of  death,  but  required  this  interval, 
which  thus  was  not  needless  nor  without  significance 
for  his  own  human  development.  That  immediately 
upon  his  triumph  upon  the  cross,  Jesus  did  not  at 
once  blossom  into  the  glorified  body,  and  thus  assert 
the  normal  and  ideal  relationship  to  nature  is  ordi- 
narily explained  by  the  needs  of  the  economy,  that 
his  disciples  and  others  might  be  convinced  of  the 
reality  of  his  death,  and  that  He  might  assert  his  fel- 
lowship with  the  departed  souls.  But  for  these  ends 
alone  it  was  in  itself  needless  for  his  own  human 
development,  and  his  experience  in  the  intermediate 
state  was  only  arbitrary  and  exceptional,  and  throws 
no  light  upon  that  state  as  experienced  by  all  other 
souls.  But,  indeed,  the  humanity  of  Christ  thus  per- 
fected is  not  rightly  regarded  as  independent,  and  in 
no  necessary  connection  with  other  human  souls.  He 
enters  the  race  to  regenerate  it,  and  is  our  brother 
forever.  The  perfection  of  the  election,  of  the  new 
human  stock,  is  needful  for  the  perfection  of  his  hu- 
manity according  to  its  idea,  as  well  as  that  his  perfec- 
tion was  needed  for  the  perfection  of  it.  This  is  what 
is  meant  when  St.  Paul  tells  us  that,  when  the  period 
of  militancy  is  over,  the  Son  shall  "  himself  be  subject 


THE  INTERMEDIATE  STATE.  295 

to  the  Father,  that  God  may  be  all  in  all."  It  is  the 
Son  regarded  as  the  centre  and  spring,  as  well  as  the 
crown  and  issue  of  the  new  humanity,  and  not  as  a 
human  individual  organically  separate.  Therefore, 
his  ethical  relation  to  the  new  human  race,  actual  and 
possible,  must  be  real  and  discoverable  at  every  point 
of  its  career,  and  in  the  whole  compass  of  its  ideal 
and  sinless  experience.  His  abiding  in  the  intermedi- 
ate state,  and  coming  into  such  conscious  connection 
with  the  departed  as  is  possible,  was  needed  for  the 
perfection  of  the  totality,  and  of  himself  as  the  organic 
centre  of  such  totality.  Thus  only  is  realized  to  the 
full  the  idea  of  Incarnation,  of  the  Divine  re-creative 
act.  For  all  departed  members  of  Christ's  mystical 
body  conscious  communion  with  him  is  still  possible, 
as  well  as  for  those  with  whom  He  came  into  con- 
scious communion  in  the  interval  after  his  death,  if, 
indeed,  these  were  limited, — as  is  indicated  by  St. 
Paul's  expressed  desire  to  "  depart,  and  be  with 
Christ."  But  this  is  still  not  identical  with  the  rela- 
tion which  will  prevail,  and  which  is  only  possible 
after  the  general  resurrection.  The  method  of  such 
intercommunication  must,  to  be  made  intelligible,  be 
expressed  in  ordinary  human  language,  and  the  word 
" preached,"  though  it  cannot  be  taken  in  its  technical 
meaning,  still  indicates  that  through  possible  media  the 
gospel,  the  knowledge  of  the  Divine  act  of  love  initi- 
ated in  the  Incarnation,  and  completed  by  reciprocation 
in  the  human  response  upon  the  cross,  was  made  known. 
It  follows  that  solitariness  (which  would  be  misery) 
and  the  absence  of  the  conditions  for  loving  intercourse 
and  blessed  companionship  cannot  be  thought,  any 
more     consistently    than     unconsciousness    can    be 


296  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

thought.  As  we  have  seen,  the  intercourse  between 
departed  souls  cannot  be  by  direct  intuition,  other- 
wise the  idea  of  individuality  is  abandoned,  and  its 
conditions  violated,  but  must  be  through  media; — 
which  implies  that  each  soul  may  still  organize  itself 
anew,  and  from  the  Divine  Glory,  and  thus  be  brought 
into  conscious  communication  with  other  souls.  But 
the  domination  over  nature,  and  the  outlook  into  the 
vast  domain  of  possible  knowledge,  and  hence  the  va- 
riety and  fulness  of  enjoyment,  are  still  reserved,  and 
can  only  be  when  perfection  is  reached  for  the  totality 
of  the  new  creation,  and  for  each  individual  member 
of  the  same,  when  indeed  the  xriffi?  itself  is  also  re- 
generated and  made  correspondent  to  the  ethical 
perfection  of  the  new  organism,  when  the  "  new 
heavens "  (in  the  phenomenal  sense)  and  the  "  new 
earth  "  shall  be.  What  in  this  connection  is  the  sig- 
nificance of  the  "  Day  of  the  Lord,"  the  "  Day  of 
Judgment,"  is  an  enquiry  to  be  taken  up  in  the  proper 
place. 

But  now  under  these  required  conditions  a  priori 
and  with  the  light  thrown  upon  the  enquiry  by  the 
Scriptural  suggestions,  let  us  consider  more  minutely 
the  Intermediate  State,  as  it  was,  is,  and  will  be  for  all 
departed  souls  who  have  met  their  probation  rightly, 
for  the  holy  ones  of  the  old  dispensation,  for  the  faith- 
ful ones  in  Christ,  and  for  all  the  morally  obedient. 
The  enquiry  as  to  any  portion  of  humanity  in  this  list 
excluded,  the  morally  disobedient,  or  concerning 
those  who  belong  to  the  kingdom  of  evil,  if  there  be 
such,  must  be  taken  up  independently,  and  approached 
from  a  different  direction. 

In  our  present  mode  of  consciousness  we  are  per- 


THE  INTERMEDIA  TE  ST  A  TE.  297 

petually  reminded  that  we  are  under  time-conditions, 
and  limitations  obstructive  to  true  knowledge.  One 
impression  from  the  environment  is  succeeded  by,  or 
is  interfered  with  by  another,  and  partially  obliterated 
by  it.  We  know  the  difficulty  of  chaining  attention 
to  any  one  thing  or  thought.  Constant  perturbations 
occur.  There  is  a  perpetual  indraught  of  impressions 
upon  the  brain,  and  the  sum  of  sensations,  recollec- 
tions, influences,  ideas,  is  always  a  complex  more  or 
less  bewildering.  When  through  some  firm  resolve, 
or  successful  endeavor,  or  in  consequence  of  powerful 
mental  enchainment,  or  from  the  ease  of  habit,  this 
pressure  is  measurably  lightened,  or  for  a  time  almost 
removed,  we  know  with  what  ease  and  success  the 
mind  will  work,  and  how,  in  completely  seeming  ab- 
straction, it  seems  almost  freed  from  time-conditions, 
that  no  limit  can  be  set  to  its  speed,  and  that  in  a  mo- 
ment just  appreciable,  it  can  flash  through  processes 
that  at  other  times  it  can  only  lingeringly  follow. 
Probably,  except  in  deepest  sleep  we  are  never  un- 
loosed from  many  points  of  connection  with  the  outer 
world  and  never  entirely,  and  our  remembered  dreams 
are  a  synthesis  of  the  debris  of  memory,  of  past  brain 
impressions,  with  present  incoming  sensations.  Per- 
fect health  alone  would  seem  to  enable  perfect  sleep, 
and  make  a  clean  separation  between  the  automatic 
and  the  voluntary  processes.  Thus  even  in  sleep  we 
are  rarely  or  never  reduced  to  our  rudimental  con- 
sciousness, or  the  universal  elements  of  all  con- 
sciousness, and  there  is  always  this  interplay  of  indi- 
vidual brain-impressions  past  and  present.  Con- 
sciousness, concretely,  is  thus  an  ever-changing  flow, 
and  at  no  point  of  its  change  represents  the  entirety 


298  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

of  the  soul's  content,  and  is  no  trustworthy  indication 
of  the  paramount  and  absolute  character.  Could  the 
conscious  soul  be  unloosed  from  this  bewildering  con- 
tact, and  withdrawn  from  these  automatic  processes, 
which  depend  upon  physical  relations  and  space-con- 
ditions, we  should  have  another  mode  of  conscious- 
ness ;  and  for  the  first  time,  the  conditions  for  intro- 
spection and  profitable  self-scrutiny  become  possible. 
The  soul  could  then  be,  and  would  then  be  self- 
regarded,  as  it  had  been  determined  by  its  previous 
history, — would  be  left  in  its  actual  character,  un- 
disturbed from  without.  It  would  exist  in  its  past 
history  summed  up  in  its  result,  and  there  might 
be  a  review  and  understanding  of  the  same.  But 
even  in  this  time-conditions  are  still  existent ;  but 
it  is  no  longer  time  measured  by  external  progress 
and  change,  and  occurring  events,  and  more  or  less 
speedy  brain  action,  but  time  only  as  a  condition  for 
thought,  for  soul  changes  spontaneously  or  deliber- 
ately wrought  upon  the  self.  And  if,  as  we  have  seen, 
some  relation  to  an  environment  must  still  exist,  there 
is  implied  in  this  that  space  and  time  still  exist  as  the 
conditions  of  a  determined  and  developing  universe, 
and  that  this  condition  of  the  soul  is  not  independent 
of  the  same.  But  its  relation  is  no  longer  to  the  uni- 
verse as  we  know  it,  as  developing  under  existing 
physical  laws,  but  with  the  universe  as  a  field  for  the 
display  of  the  Divine  ideas, — with  the  universe  in  its 
ethical  and  aesthetic  significance,  to  which  its  physical 
movement  and  change  are  pre-adapted,  or  which  it 
illustrates.  Thus  all  truth  is  regarded  through  an 
atmosphere  no  longer  clouded  but  clear,  and  the 
regard  subsides  towards  the  centre  of  outlook,  whence 


THE  INTERMEDIA  TE  STA  TE.  299 

all  truth  is  unified.  Here  now,  we  have  for  the  first 
time  the  conditions  for  a  true  self-knowledge,  for  the 
right  understanding  of  the  past,  for  the  clarification 
of  the  mind's  imperishable  content,  for  the  harmoni- 
zation of  the  same,  and  the  soul's  self-symmetri- 
zation. 

In  this  condition  no  moral  change  seems  any  longer 
possible,  for  there  are  no  acts  possible  as  alternative 
modes  having  differing  results.  Any  solicitations  to 
the  same  have  died  out,  and  the  soul  yields  to  its 
gravitation  now  acquired  and  fixed.  Increments  of 
moral  strength,  and  more  intelligent  understanding  of 
its  own  moral  fixedness  are  possible,  as  the  result 
of  this  harmonized  knowledge  of  the  past,  this  scru- 
tiny of  the  self  in  its  previous  history  and  present 
attainment.  In  contrast  with  the  existing  mundane 
life  and  experience  this  is  well  characterized  as  a  period 
of  quietude,  of  rest  and  peace,  of  freedom  from  these 
perturbations  which  trouble  and  alloy  all  enjoyment. 
Such  a  period  is  a  need  of  the  soul  to  come  to  itself. 
It  wants  no  surprises,  but  to  measure  itself  ere  it 
would  spring  into  new  experiences.  Even  now  the 
human  heart  perpetually  craves  such  a  condition.  It 
seeks  it  in  its  devotions,  which  are  found,  more  than 
all  other  earthly  experiences,  to  be  restful.  It  seeks 
it  in  its  Sabbaths,  in  its  retirements,  and  struggles 
after  the  perfect  peace  which  it  fails  in  attaining. 
But  all  these  are  but  feeble  and  short-lived  anticipa- 
tions of  the  "  rest  "  which  remains  for  the  "  people  of 
God." 

This,  then,  is  the  significance  and  the  intent  of  the 
Intermediate  State,  which  is  thus  no  phase  of  the  hu- 
man career  arbitrarily  contrived  and  interposed,  but  a 


300  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

necessary  phase  of  human  development,  and  the  pro- 
found object  of  the  soul's  longing.  It  would  seem 
that  no  human  soul,  however  holy,  would,  should,  or 
could  long  for  the  beatific  vision  immediately  after 
death,  but  must  wish  first  for  the  Paradise  of  Rest,  in 
order  to  understand  itself,  as  it  cannot  while  in  the 
earthly  body,  and  to  prepare  for  the  coming  glorifica- 
tion, to  forget  its  individual  salvation,  and  think  of  it 
only  included  in  that  of  the  rest  of  those  who  have 
finished  their  course  in  faith.  And  besides,  so  to 
think  and  desire  its  immediate  beatification  would  be 
to  forget  the  "  Day  of  the  Lord,"  to  render  this 
"  Judgment  "  needless  for  itself, — for  which  exception 
there  is  no  warrant.  It  would  thus  lose  sigdit  of  the 
need  and  significance  of  this  august  occurrence,  and 
must  regard  it  as  a  mere  outward  spectacle,  having  no 
necessity,  and  no  connection  with  human  character  ; 
with  which,  as  we  shall  see,  it  does  have  important  and 
indispensable  relation,  such  as  warrants  the  emphasis 
laid  upon  it  in  the  Christian  Scriptures. 

In  this  attainment  of  self-knowledge,  and  harmoni- 
zation of  all  knowledge  as  yet  rendered  possible,  it  is 
by  no  means  necessary  to  think  that  it  is  a  solitary 
process,  but  that  companionship  and  sympathy  are 
aids  to  the  same.  Conflicts  and  misunderstandings 
between  the  loving  ones  are  no  longer  possible.  To 
know  one's  self  as  member  of  the  human  organism 
it  is  necessary  to  know  others  ;  and  hence  we  see  that 
the  attainment  of  this  required  self-knowledge  must 
be  progressive.  Any  philosophy  which  withdraws 
time  from  our  system  of  thoughts  withdraws  these 
thoughts  away  with  it,  and  makes  progress  meaning- 
less or  contradictory,  leaves  it  at  a  blank  wall  whence 


THE  INTERMEDIA  TE  STA  TE.  301 

no  paths  issue.  And  that  the  time-conditions  for  the 
progress  of  departed  souls  are  not  independent,  and 
unrelated  to  the  time-conditions  of  the  development  of 
the  souls  yet  on  the  earth,  of  the  Church,  but  are 
adapted  and  adjusted  to  these  ;  that  they  are  not 
two  currents  apart,  but  depend  upon  each  other  ;  that 
unification  in  our  thought  is  possible  here,  we  shall 
endeavor  to  exhibit  hereafter. 

To  die  then  is  for  the  Christian  believer  neither 
entirely  an  elevation  nor  altogether  a  depression  in 
the  mode  of  existence.  That  it  is  in  some  sense  a 
depression  seems  to  be  indicated  in  the  figurative 
language  of  the  New  Testament,  which  speaks  of  it 
as  a  descent,  els  ra  uar^repa  juepr/.  It  is  a  depres- 
sion, since  therein  and  thereby  the  soul  is  withdrawn 
from  the  existing  relation  to  nature,  the  scene  of  its 
probation,  development,  intellectual  and  moral  forma- 
tion, and  enjoyment,  in  order  to  prepare  for  the  ideal 
and  real  relation.  It  is  limited  in  the  sphere  of  its 
activity,  and  the  part  it  plays  in  the  militant  life  of  the 
Church  is  narrowed.  Its  sense  of  fellowship  is  not 
abandoned,  rather  its  sympathy  has  become  purer  ; 
and  intercession,  which  is  the  bond  of  moral  life,  as 
the  nervous  system  is  of  physical  life,  is  natural  and 
inevitable.  It  can  love  and  pray  for  those  it  has  left 
behind,  but  it  can  launch  out  into  no  activities  for 
them,  for  this  would  be  to  merge  into  the  earthly  per- 
turbations again,  to  abandon  its  proper  task.  It  is 
depression,  because  its  longing  for  the  ultimate  per- 
fection, being  undisturbed,  is  purer  and  stronger,  we 
had  almost  said,  more  impotent.  The  souls  "  under 
the  altar  "  still  cry,  "  how  long,  how  long."  But  for 
all  the  other  reasons  we  have  given,  it  is  an  elevation, 


302  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

as  a  progressive  stage  towards  its  ultimate  destiny. 
The  figurative  language  of  Scripture  countenances 
both  views.  It  is  going  down  to  the  depths,  it  is 
going  to  a  place  of  safe-keeping,  yet  this  is  a  Paradise. 
It  has  blessedness  from  negative  conditions  mainly, 
from  positive  conditions  in  part,  from  rest  and  peace, 
and  withdrawal  from  all  that  is  painful  and  disturbing, 
rather  than  from  any  soaring  into  new  activities  and 
cleaving  the  universe  with  freedom  like  the  Divine 
freedom,  penetrating  its  exhaustless  significance,  and 
availing  of  all  its  capacities  of  delight, — yet  it  has  more 
intelligent  and  keener  anticipation  of  all  this.  It  has 
supreme  comfort  (to  use  no  stronger  word  to  express 
what  St.  Paul  anticipated)  in  that  the  perfecting  ones 
may  be  "  with  Christ,"  who  as  perfectly  human  is 
master  of  the  media  needful  for  communication.  But 
imagination  cannot  be  trusted  when  it  attempts  to  deal 
with  this  fellowship. 

But, — some  souls  have  been  long  in  Paradise,  and 
some  will  never  enter  there,  and  there  is  to  be  a  Day 
of  Judgment.  All  these  things  do  not  exist  apart,  or 
have  an  arbitrary  connection  merely,  but  depend  upon 
each  other  for  the  full  understanding  of  each  ;  and 
together  constitute  one  topic,  that  hitherto  has  hardly 
had  full  justice  done  it,  and  upon  the  consideration  of 
this  we  now  enter. 


CHAPTER    XXVI. 

THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  ELECTION, THE  DAY  OF  JUDGMENT. 

To  suppose  the  human  race,  regarded  as  a  totality 
or  an  organism,  to  be  stationary,  or  retrogressive  in 
its  development,  is  to  think  it  out  of  analogy  with 
every  other  Divine  idea,  and  all  Divine  activity.  In 
the  physical  realm  retrogressions  are  only  apparent, 
and  may  be  predicated  of  particulars  which  recede 
only  to  prepare  for  another  onward  movement.  The 
Divine  thought  for  the  physical  universe  is  inevitably 
to  be  worked  out.  It  is  not  a  phantasm,  beginning 
in  nothing,  and  ending  in  nothing,  but  is  the  Divine 
Glory  determined, — the  movement  is  steady,  and  the 
result  is  sure.  It  cannot  lapse  into  nonentity  and 
there  be  a  new  beginning.  That  it  is  permanent  in 
its  ideal  realization,  or  rather  as  an  endless  process,  is 
indicated  in  the  Scriptural  doctrine  of  physical  glorifi- 
cation,— of  the  new  heavens  and  the  new  earth.  It  is 
a  Divine  and  imperishable  seed,  in  which  the  ultimate 
growth  and  perfected  beauty  and  grandeur  are  germi- 
nating, and  in  which  structural  changes  are  wrought. 
This  is  the  regeneration  of  the  nriai^,  dependent  upon 
the  regeneration  of  humanity,  and  its  attainment  of 
ethical  perfection. 

In  like  manner,  and  on  a  priori  grounds,  the  human 
race  must  be  thought  as  progressive  and  as  undergo- 
ing development.     This  may  be   difficult  to  demon- 

303 


304  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

strate  from  a  posteriori  evidence,  yet  has  the  vast 
weight  of  probability  for  it ;  and  the  conviction  exists 
probably  in  the  scientific,  or  the  agnostic  mind,  as  it 
does  in  the  religious  mind,  that  in  the  main  human 
history  is  progressive,  and  that  the  retrogressions  are 
only  apparent,  or  partial,  or  temporary,  and  preparative 
for  new  advance.  To  discover  the  key  by  which  to 
read  human  history  has  been  a  favorite  attempt  for 
thinking  minds,  in  which  some  have  sought  to  be 
guided  by  interpretation  of  prophecy.  But  no  scheme 
as  yet  has  won  general  adherence,  and  God  still  re- 
tains his  own  secret.  That  He  should  withhold  the 
conditions  for  manifold  knowledge  and  common  in- 
sight  seems  to  be  required  by  the  ethical  conditions 
for  human  recovery,  and  to  preserve  a  field  of  diffi- 
culty in  which  faith  may  grow  strong.  Hence  faith, 
though  not  independent  of  external  presentation  of 
its  proper  object-matter,  still  rests  upon  a  priori 
grounds,  upon  its  confidence  in  the  Divine  promise, 
or  the  Divine  character,  and  grows  strong  by  having 
to  meet  and  vanquish  the  doubts  and  difficulties  which 
emerge  a  posteriori.  But  to  read  human  history 
aright  we  must  remember  that  the  final  cause  of  its 
career  is  not  physical  development  as  such,  nor  intel- 
lectual advance  as  such,  but  these  only  as  dependent 
and  consequent  upon  moral  growth  and  development, 
or  as  providential  means  thereto.  The  only  end 
satisfying  to  the  reason  and  the  aesthetic  sense  is  a 
humanity  which  shall  be  ethically  perfect,  and  in  its 
internal  harmony  shall  image  the  harmony  of  the  con- 
stitution of  the  Godhead  itself.  To  this  when  at- 
tained mental  illumination  and  physical  glorification 
shall  be  adjusted,  whence  too  will  proceed  the  corre- 


THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  ELECTION.         305 

spondent  changes  in  the  ktigi?  (though  the  question 
will  still  remain  whether  any  change  in  the  structure 
of  the  HTieis  itself,  or  its  governing  laws,  shall  be  need- 
ful ;  whether  the  change  in  the  subjective  relation  of 
the  spiritual  soul  to  the  universe  will  not  be  entirely 
sufficient).  A  kingdom  and  a  commonwealth  of  love, 
which  shall  assimilate  whatever  in  existence  is  kindred 
to  itself  in  any  existing  or  possible  worlds,  free  to 
range  through  the  outer  expanse,  and  from  the  un- 
moved and  unifying  centre  and  bond  of  all  relations 
regarding  the  ever  receding  circumference  of  the 
Divine  thought, — this  is  not  only  what  the  Chris- 
tian revelation  holds  out  as  the  ultimate  attain- 
ment, but  what  human  aspiration  longs  for  and 
strives  for,  and  with  no  less  than  which  it  can  be 
content, — nay,  is  what  human  nature  itself,  when  an- 
alyzed, displays  as  its  innate  pre-disposition  and  its 
creative  idea,  which  underlies  all  ethical  judgment  and 
legitimates  the  moral  distinction.  This  latter  thought 
was  reached  and  stated  in  other  connection  both  by 
Kant  and  by  Bishop  Butler.  But  here  at  once,  in  the 
endeavor  to  read  the  moral  history  of  mankind,  in- 
trudes itself  the  fact  of  the  existence  of  moral  evil. 
This  too  was  recognized  as  a  fact  by  Kant  in  his  notion 
of  a  "  bias  of  the  will,"  however  to  be  accounted  for ; 
and  is  of  course  implied  in  Bishop  Butler's  treatment 
of  conscience. 

Not  only  is  nature  hostile  to  man's  normal  develop- 
ment and  often  ministers  to  the  disease  of  humanity 
by  imparting,  through  heredity,  corrupted  instincts, 
but  moral  evil  is  acquiesced  in  and  deliberately  chosen, 
thus  showing  that  the  disorder  is  not  merely  physical 
but  spiritual  as  well.     We  are  not  concerned  here 

Vol.  II. 


306  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

with  the  question  of  the  origin  of  this,  or  explanation 
of  the  possibility  of  this  fact,  but  simply  with  the 
vindication  of  it  as  a  fact.  Schemes  are  abundant 
enough  which  seek  to  show  that  moral  evil  is  not 
voluntary  or  spiritual,  but  simply  the  result  of  in- 
stincts inherited,  or  created  or  fostered  by  the  envir- 
onment. But  in  the  way  of  this  explanation  is  the 
deeper  conviction  of  responsibility,  which  is  naive 
and  spontaneous,  which  can  only  be  got  rid  of  by 
labored  efforts  of  thought,  and  then  but  transiently, 
for  at  times  it  is  sure  to  break  through  this  superficial 
mesh  which  the  mind  has  woven  around  itself.  Jud- 
ging as  leniently  as  we  can,  and  explaining  as  much  of 
the  outbreak  of  moral  evil  as  we  can,  as  temporary, 
or  superficial, — regarding  it  often  as  an  envelope  to  be 
sloughed  off  and  leaving  the  inmost  character  pure 
in  its  innate  predisposition,  or  acquired  tendency, 
still  the  fact  often  eludes  utterly  such  conjectures, 
and  it  remains  undeniable  that,  within  the  sphere 
of  our  knowledge,  moral  evil  still  seems  to  be  deliber- 
ately chosen,  to  be  persisted  in  through  life,  and  to 
grow  more  intense  to  the  very  end.  This  can  no 
more  be  regarded  as  unspiritual  than  moral  good  can 
be  regarded  as  unspiritual.  It  is  an  attitude  as  posi- 
tive as  the  other.  To  think  either  is  to  relegate  us  to 
a  philosophy  of  necessity,  to  deny  human  freedom,  to 
resolve  every  thing  into  a  physical  or  logical  nexus. 
In  the  endeavor  to  exalt,  or  amplify  and  perfect  the 
conception  of  the  First  Principle,  this  scheme  has 
lowered,  diminished,  and  impaired  it  so  that  it  no 
longer  satisfies  the  unbiased  thought.  Instead  of 
removing  all  limit  to  the  Divine  power,  it  has  given 
an  impassable  limit,  and  all  the  Divine  creations  are 
alike  ephemera. 


THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  ELECTION.  307 

There  is  then  this  element  of  moral  evil  in  the 
world,  affecting  the  whole  race  in  the  perverse  and 
disordered  instincts  which  are  inherited,  and  becoming 
purely  spiritual  in  a  portion  of  the  race.  As  a  sum 
of  hostile  proclivities  it  exists  in  combination  with 
altruistic  instincts  and  proclivities,  concretely  in  each 
human  individual  ;  as  a  spiritual  characteristic  purely, 
or  more  or  less  abstractly,  it  marks  a  portion  of 
mankind,  how  large  no  one  can  know.  So  intricate 
is  human  character  that  in  no  endeavor  are  our 
judgments  more  likely  to  be  superficial  or  to  be 
reversed.  We  are  disappointed  often  in  either  direc- 
tion. Heroism  and  the  utmost  of  self-sacrifice  now 
and  then  appear  in  one  whom  we  had  morally  con- 
demned, and  sensuality,  greed,  or  cruelty  in  one 
whom  we  had  regarded  as  pure  or  loving.  Jesus 
himself  often  reverses  the  estimate  of  others'  moral 
and  religious  worth  made  by  those  about  him.  "  Judge 
nothing  before  the  time  "  is  the  apostolic  caution  of 
one  who  had  meditated  much  upon  this  uncertainty. 
Christian  love,  sympathy,  and  hope  are  inclined  to 
think  as  favorably  of  human  characters  as  one  can, 
and  in  every  way  in  thought  to  reduce  the  number  of 
the  spiritually  evil  ;  and  Christian  zeal  regards  no  one 
as  irreclaimable,  though  it  may  have  reason  to  think 
that  in  the  Divine  knowledge  there  are  such  ;  and 
this  suspicion  often  discourages,  and  impairs  the 
variety,  the  enthusiasm,  and  the  hopefulness  of  its 
efforts. 

Assuming  then  that  the  spiritually  evil  do  exist, 
there  has  been  no  effort  by  them  as  yet,  or  but  faint 
and  transitory  or  greatly  limited  effort,  to  combine 
and  organize  in  order  to  strengthen  and  propagate 
the  evil  principle.     Nay,  the  very  definition  of  pure 


3o3  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

evil  is  inconsistent  with  any  such  organizing  effort, 
except  for  a  negative  purpose,  which  thus  is  short- 
lived. Pure  evil  is  the  revolt  of  the  individual  against 
the  totality,  and  is  therefore  disintegrating.  While  it 
craves  fellowship  for  other  than  a  negative  purpose,  it 
confesses  a  want  which  the  principle  of  recovery  can 
lay  hold  of,  and  can  hardly  be  regarded  as  pure. 

It  is  a  rash  judgment,  however,  too  often  hastily 
made,  and  by  no  means  follows,  that  all  that  shows 
itself  as  unbelief  in  the  Christian  realms  can  be 
regarded  as  spiritual  evil.  Much  of  it  is  rather 
altruistic  instincts  and  convictions  misguided,  and 
which  may  be  rectified.  Much  of  it  exists  because 
that  is  thought  to  be  Christianity  which  is  not,  or  is 
but  a  caricature  of  the  same.  The  analysis  of  the 
consciousness  superficially  regarded  as  unbelieving 
would  often  show  the  presence  of  the  essential  ele- 
ments of  faith,  though  faith  resting  upon  wrong  or 
imperfect  object-matter. 

That  the  spiritually  evil  will,  at  some  period  in  the 
world's  history,  organize  themselves  in  order  to  weak- 
en the  altruistic  principle  and  strengthen  the  egoistic, 
seems  to  be  obscurely  intimated  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment Scriptures,  and  has  some  intrinsic  probability, 
but  the  conditions  for  it  seem  as  yet  very  far  off.  But 
the  spiritually  good  have  been  already  organized  in 
the  Christian  Church,  which  is  the  outward  though 
imperfect  representation  of  its  idea,  or  of  the  real 
organism.  But  this  organization  is,  and  has  been  for 
a  long  time  maimed,  broken,  and  imperfect.  It  is  as 
yet  a  very  poor  representation  of  the  Christian  Com- 
monwealth. At  the  utmost,  since  it  will  ever  have  to 
adjust  itself  to  different  and  changing  social  condi- 


THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  ELECTION.  309 

tions,  it  must  ever  on  earth  fall  short  of  its  ideal 
perfection.  The  glowing  language  concerning  it, 
though  sincere  and  legitimate,  is  rather  for  its  idea 
than  for  its  actuality,  for  what  it  may  be  imagined  or 
is  hoped  to  be,  than  for  what  it  is  seen  to  be.  But 
confidence  that  it  is  ever  moving  towards  whatever 
perfection  is  possible  for  it  during  its  militant  period  is 
never  lost,  and  enthusiasm  for  its  idea  and  its  destiny, 
and  for  the  certainty  of  its  success  in  accomplishing 
its  purpose,  is  warranted.  What  now  stands  in  the 
way  of  the  attainment  of  its  uttermost  seems  to  be 
deficient  knowledge  or  unclear  apprehension.  There 
may  be  at  the  centre  of  all  faithful  Christian  souls 
moral  accord,  shown  in  absolute  devotion  to  the  Di- 
vine will  as  displayed  in  the  moral  law,  and  religious 
accord,  from  recognition  of  the  personal  tie  to  Jesus 
Christ  as  the  moving  spring  and  sustaining  and  nour- 
ishing principle  of  all  obedience  ;  but  the  sum  of 
Divine  truth,  variously  revealed,  is  not  clearly  and 
consistently  apprehended  and  comprehended,  and 
hence  various  and  conflicting  modes  and  channels  of 
activity  emerge,  and  energy  is  wasted.  Wonderful  as 
has  been  the  advance  in  Christian  knowledge,  clearing 
up  in  portions  here  and  there  what  was  obscured  or 
hidden,  still  the  thoughtful  minds  of  Christendom, 
which  lead  and  guide  all  the  rest,  are  still  seeking  the 
centre  whence  alone  the  outlook  will  resolve  itself 
into  a  harmony  measurably  unclouded.  But  the 
main  condition  for  this  clearer  outlook,  whose  report 
will  attain  general  recognition,  is  to  be  had  only  by 
the  diffusion  and  intensification  of  personal  holiness, 
and  the  strengthening  of  the  sacrificial  spirit.  Mental 
advance  is  to  be  had  by  the  victories  of  faith,  and 


310  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

these  are  had  rather  secretly  than  visibly.  As  we 
have  before  said,  to  infer  from  existing  circumstances 
that  faith  is  weaker  than  it  once  was, — to  characterize 
this  doubting  and  examining  age  as  a  faithless  one,  in 
comparison  with  the  naive  and  undisputed  admission 
of  what  purported  to  be  truth  externally  presented, 
such  as  was  the  case  at  divers  periods  in  the  past,  is 
probably  a  superficial  and  erroneous  judgment.  It 
regards  faith  rather  in  its  mental  than  in  its  moral 
element.  The  moral  worth  of  faith  is  not  measured 
by  its  freedom  from  conscious  doubt,  by  its  calmness 
and  innocence,  by  its  clearness  and  its  beauty,  but  by 
its  facing  and  vanquishing  all  doubt,  by  its  constancy 
in  its  struggles,  by  its  holding  its  vision  true  amid  the 
darkness,  by  holding  to  the  invisible  hand  though  the 
waves  go  over  its  head.  Its  sublimity  is  hard  to 
measure  and  may  be  concealed,  while  its  beauty  at 
other  times  may  be  apparent.  It  is  as  difficult  to 
judge  of  the  strength  of  faith  as  it  is  to  judge  of 
human  character.  "  When  the  Son  of  Man  cometh, 
will  He  find  faith  on  the  earth  ?  "  has  a  double  mean- 
ing : — that,  first,  it  will  be  so  tried  as  to  be  almost 
yielding,  so  bewildered  by  the  plausibility  and  the 
pressure  of  opposing  evidence  that  its  object  will 
fluctuate  and  pass  within  and  out  of,  and  again  within 
the  clouds, — that  it  will  itself  almost  break  into  de- 
spair ;  yet  in  this  apparent  weakness  will  be  its  real 
strength.  It  falls  back  upon  its  profound  religious 
instincts,  still  feels  the  attractiveness  and  beauty  of 
good,  and  of  the  loving  principle,  and  clings  to  God 
in  its  gloom  as  the  only  satisfying  object.  Its  relief 
will  come,  not  as  theretofore  by  its  own  escape  from 
difficulty  and  mental  vindication  of  its  own  position, 


THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  ELECTION.  311 

but  by  the  relaxation  of  the  trial,  by  the  manifestation 
of  the  Lord  himself,  quieting  its  perturbation,  and 
restoring  its  serenity  and  its  joy. 

While  thus  our  backward  and  forward  regard  may 
convince  us  that  for  the  Church  there  has  been  and 
will  be  a  steady  onward  progress,  that  Christian  faith 
has  been  becoming  stronger  by  trial,  Christian  obedi- 
ence more  intelligent  and  therefore  uniform,  and  that 
Christian  knowledge  is  undergoing  clarification,  thus 
making  agreement  and  harmony  possible,  that  the 
alternatives  of  belief  and  unbelief  are  at  length,  as  the 
smoke  of  the  battle  subsides,  to  become  simpler; — 
there  is  implied  likewise  that  there  has  been,  is,  and 
will  be  a  correspondent  advance  in  the  evil  principle, 
that  it  is  slowly  fortifying  itself  by  a  system  which 
permits  the  spiritual  disintegration,  and  yet  such 
combinations  as  are  needed  for  a  philosophy  of  expe- 
diency and  earthly  good  solely.  This  will  have  plaus- 
ibility, since  it  will  promise  more  for  this  life  than 
the  Christian  philosophy  promises ; — yet  that  its  in- 
stincts, through  the  currents  ruled  by  heredity,  will 
not  have  become  altruistic,  will  be  shown  by  its  impa- 
tience with  the  rival  Christian  philosophy  which  re- 
quires sacrifice  of  earthly  good  for  moral  ends.  Any 
historic  prediction  resting  upon  such  grounds  as  these, 
however,  could  be  ventured  upon  with  little  confi- 
dence as  to  its  details,  and  could  give  us  but  the  mer- 
est outline.  But  the  prediction  is  confident,  and  rests 
upon  valid  grounds,  which  declares  that  human  prog- 
ress will  make  clearer  the  distinction  of  moral  good 
and  evil,  between  the  contrasted  modes  of  activity 
which  result  from  the  Christian  principle  rightly  un- 
derstood as  an  ethico-religious  one, — and  any  prin- 


312  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

ciple,  however  simple  or  complex,  which  looks  not 
beyond  earthly  life,  and  regulates  its  activity  by  its 
requirements  solely.  Nature  herself,  under  her  pres- 
ent laws,  will  always  plant  the  germs  of  egoistic  in- 
stincts, and  hence  the  involuntary  proclivities  can 
never  become  altogether  altruistic,  as  is  the  dream 
of  some  philosophers ;  and  thus  the  human  hive 
under  this  philosophy  would  not  be  homogeneous, 
would  be  honeycombed  by  inward  contradictions  and 
hostilities,  and  be  ultimately  self-destructive.  The  ul- 
timate of  Christian  attainment  to  be  reached  on  the 
earth  will  not  consist  in  having  escaped  such  disor- 
dered instincts,  but  in  the  triumphs  of  the  believing 
principle  amidst  them. 

The  sole  object  of  these  arguments,  if  they  be  such, 
for  which  alone  they  have  been  adduced,  and  on  which 
no  other  stress  is  here  laid,  is  to  show  and  insist  that 
the  moral  and  religious  progress  of  the  Christian  peo- 
ple has  an  issue,  which  we  may  descry,  if  but  dimly ; 
and  this  is,  first, — the  attainment  of  the  utmost  possi- 
ble strength  for  faith,  whereby  it  will  become  possible 
for  it  to  lapse  into  sight  ;  and  this  faith  not  confined 
to  individuals  here  and  there,  but  the  characteristic 
of  the  whole  Christian  body,  which  thus  will  have 
become  unified  so  far  as  is  possible  while  yet  the  indi- 
vidual consciousness  shall  preserve  its  particularity. 
No  more  earthly  trial  will  be  required,  or  be  needed. 
Secondly — there  will  have  been  a  correspondent  in- 
crease, or  rather  rectification  and  arrangement,  of 
knowledge,  and  no  such  variations  or  aberrations  will 
exist  as  will  impair  the  harmony  of  the  Christian 
commonwealth,  or  the  concentration  of  its  energies. 
The  intellectual  conflict  in  the  entire  world  will  have 
narrowed  down,  will  be  simpler,   though  more  pro- 


THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  ELECTION.         313 

found.  But  there  never  can  be  clean  spatial  or  physi- 
cal separation  of  the  advocates  of  these  rival  philoso- 
phies, so  that  each  can  be  thrown  solely  upon  the  im- 
provement or  development  by  heredity  of  its  own  sum 
of  instincts ; — for  intermarriages  will  still  take  place,  and 
the  instincts  of  either  class  be  imparted  to  the  other. 
Thus  the  separation  will  not  be  outward  and  visible,  but 
still,  as  now,  hidden,  clearly  known  only  to  God,  yet 
more  clearly  known  by  men  than  now.  Such  a  result 
seems  indeed  still  very  far  off,  so  far  off  that  imagina- 
tion wearies  in  the  endeavor  to  thread  its  way  to  it,  as 
it  wearies  when  it  endeavors  to  penetrate  the  infinite 
space.  But  this  presents  no  real  difficulty  for  thought. 
We  have  only  to  convince  ourselves  that  there  has 
been  progress  in  the  past,  that  this  progress  has  had 
method  and  meaning,  and  that  there  is  some  attain- 
ment in  the  future,  some  end  that  must  be  reached, 
which  we  have  from  Divine  revelation,  or  from  our 
philosophy,  or  from  our  science,  been  enabled  dimly 
to  descry, — and  time,  however  prolonged,  and  changes, 
however  numerous,  and  seemingly  now  unlikely, 
present  no  difficulties.  But  this  far  future,  however 
dimly  outlined  as  yet,  and  the  pathway  to  it,  does 
not  grow  darker  but  a  little  clearer  as  we  look  closely. 
The  world  moves  forward  so  rapidly  now,  accom- 
plishing as  much  of  its  history  in  a  year  as  it  once  did 
in  a  century  ; — the  economical  conditions,  material 
and  social,  for  the  penetration  of  Christianity  into  the 
outlying  masses  of  the  world  grow  so  much  more  en- 
couraging and  hopeful ;  the  activity  of  thought  among 
the  cultured  peoples  is  so  vivid  and  incessant ;  and 
among  Christians  the  thoughtful  minds  seem  so  mov- 
ing along  parallel  or  converging  rather  than  upon  diver- 
ging lines  ;   there  is  so  intense  and  breathless  anxiety 


314  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

to  attain  the  truth, — that  in  our  thought  and  even  in 
our  imagination  the  slow  progress  of  the  past  gives 
way  before  the  likelihood  of  a  more  speedy  progress 
in  the  future,  and  we  grow  more  hopeful  and  encour- 
aged. This  speed  will  accelerate  till  the  end,  and 
thus  the  far  future  is  brought  by  degrees  within  the 
sphere  of  more  confident  and  promising  conjecture. 
In  the  end  Christian  thought  will  be  prepared  for  the 
ultimate  clarification,  as  faith  will  be  prepared  for  the 
ultimate  relief.  Beyond  this  knowledge  cannot  go 
without  further  light,  without  a  new  revelation  ; — and 
thus  opens  for  our  thought  the  need  of  what  the 
Scriptures  declare  will  be  the  Day  of  discrimination, 
the  Lord's  second  coming, 

But  this  "  Day  of  the  Lord  "  will  have  interest  for 
the  dead  as  well  as  for  the  living.  The  two  streams  of 
progress,  on  the  earth,  and  in  the  realm  of  the  de- 
parted, must  meet  and  become  coincident,  and  require 
the  same  consummation.  The  significance  of  this 
event,  this  Day,  act,  or  process  of  Judgment,  (which  is 
not  an  arbitrary  intervention,  or  a  symbol  of  some- 
thing occurring  beneath  knowledge,  or  a  mere  out- 
ward spectacle,  but,  though  these  last,  still  something 
more,  and  a  necessary  crisis  in  human  development), 
requires,  however,  for  the  full  exhibition  of  its  mean- 
ing, still  one  other  enquiry.  And  this,  into  the 
mystery  of  Providence,  and  the  different  treatment 
which  the  individuals  of  the  human  race,  physically, 
intellectually,  and  religiously  receive  from  the  Divine 
Ruler.  This,  too,  may  throw  light  upon  the  direction 
and  the  intent  of  these  confluent  streams.1     This  dis- 

1  It  is  necessary  here  to  recall,  and  therefore  we  take  the  liberty  of  repeating, 
to  some  extent,  what  has  been  already  said  in  another  connection. 


THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  ELECTION.  315 

parity  is  most  marked,  and  the  contrast  most  violent, 
between  the  advantages  physical,  mental  and  moral 
of  the  favored  races  and  individuals,  and  those  who 
seem  neglected,  or  rejected  from  the  Divine  notice. 
This  furnishes,  perhaps,  the  most  difficult  and  per- 
plexing problem  and  trial  of  faith  which  besets  the 
Christian  thinker  in  our  day,  and  his  belief  is  as- 
saulted more  violently  from  this  direction  than  by  any 
attack  from  the  more  open  and  avowed  enemy,  of 
philosophic  unbelief,  by  which  only  here  and  there  is 
any  Christian  seriously  disturbed  or  shaken.  The 
doubts  which  come  from  the  mystery  of  Providence 
find  their  way  into  every  mind,  and  with  strength  in- 
creased according  to  culture,  yet  variously  in  individ- 
uals, and  probably  more  seriously  in  those  of  vivid 
imagination,  acute  sympathies,  and  strong  emotions. 
Coming  from  a  posteriori  sources,  they  afford  only 
trial,  and  little  or  no  comfort.  This  comes  solely 
upon  a  priori  grounds,  and  from  the  basis  of  our 
faith.  Indeed  but  for  these  doubts  and  this  conflict 
there  could  be  little  trial  of  faith.  The  religious  life 
would  be  nearer  simple  innocence  and  would  hardly 
be  victory.  Indeed,  in  many,  faith  has  this  naive 
and  innocent  character,  and  its  trials  are  individu- 
alistic, and  require  in  each  case  separate  ex- 
planation. So  seemingly  without  meaning  seems 
this  variation  in  treatment,  so  unjustifiable  the  dis- 
tinctions or  disparity,  that  it  looks  as  though 
the  whole  environment  were  ruled  by  physical 
laws  merely,  doubt  is  raised  and  there  is  lodged  in  the 
mind  the  conclusion,  or  the  suspicion  and  fear,  that 
these  proceed  of  themselves,  and  in  entire  indepen- 
dence of  any  moral  government  whatever.    This  may 


316  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

be  carried  to  a  denial  of  the  latter,  and  thus  we  are 
relegated  to  a  philosophy  of  physical  necessity  solely, 
— in  which  case  all  that  is  called  moral  is  simply  a  form 
of  the  physical  delusively  held  to  be  something  other. 
Or,  if  a  moral  government  of  some  kind  is  admitted, 
these  are  thought  as  two  independent  systems  un- 
related, or  arbitrarily  related  and  hence  possible  of 
change  ; — all  which  is  to  introduce  a  superficial  du- 
alism which  presents  more  numerous  difficulties 
than  it  allays.  If  the  two  are  related  at  all,  one 
must  be  primary  and  paramount,  and  the  other  sub- 
ordinate. To  hold  the  physical  system  as  primary  is,  as 
we  have  said,  to  reduce  us  to  a  philosophy  of  physical 
forces  merely,  and  the  moral  as  something  other  does 
not  exist.  But  it  has  again  and  again  been  shown 
that  human  consciousness  and  human  action  are  not 
explicable  upon  these  physical  assumptions  merely, 
that  all  interference  whatever  with  nature's  forces  is 
upon  ideal  grounds,  into  which  spiritual  elements  have 
entered,  and  which  pre-suppose  the  absolute  character 
and  eternal  validity  of  moral  distinctions.  Thus  by  a 
strict  deduction  it  appears  that  the  moral  has  inde- 
pendent origin,  and  as  to  \ts  form  is  related  to  the  ab- 
stract spiritual,  to  the  absolute  intelligence,  final 
cause,  will,  and  blessedness  ;  while  as  to  its  content  it 
is  related  to  the  abstract  physical.  Therefore  physi- 
cal laws  exist,  and  physical  development,  for  the  indi- 
vidual and  for  the  universe  as  including  and  as  deter- 
mined by  the  individual,  proceeds, — not  irrespective 
of  the  requirements  of  the  spiritual  ;  and  indeed  en- 
tirely respective  of  it,  since  without  spiritual  ends  all 
physical  movement  is  aimless  and  meaningless,  and  is 
not  worthy  of  study.     To  discover  this  adjustment  is 


THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  ELECTION.  317 

the  problem  of  science  and  philosophy.  Its  method  is 
only  by  glimpses  apparent,  yet  sufficiently  so  to  sus- 
tain our  faith,  which,  however,  rests  securely  only 
upon  a  priori  grounds.  Strictly  arguing  then,  it 
must  be  that  the  movement  of  the  universe  is  adapted 
to  the  needs  and  ultimate  end  of  the  rational  and  moral 
beings  who  inhabit  it  ;  not  only  to  the  needs  of  the  to- 
tality, but  of  each  individual  as  member  of  the  same ; 
all  which  is  enunciated  in  the  words  of  Jesus,  "  Not  a 
sparrow  falleth  to  the  ground  without  your  Father," 
and  "  The  very  hairs  of  your  head  are  all  numbered," 
and  in  the  apostle's  declaration,  "  All  things  work  to- 
gether for  good  to  them  that  love  him."  But  to  assert 
this  as  a  fact,  inducible  from  observation,  is  impossi- 
ble ;  and  the  enunciation  is  received  with  an  incred- 
ulity from  which  Christians  are  not  exempt,  and  they 
vibrate  between  doubt  and  faith. 

But  it  is  not  difficult  to  show  that  we  are  entirely 
unfitted  to  judge  of  the  appositeness  of  the  treatment 
of  the  individual  soul  to  its  moral  needs  and  develop- 
ment. We  need  not  so  much  to  vindicate  a  posteriori, 
and  to  justify  the  stream  of  providence,  as  to  show  the 
unworth  of  any  denial  of  it.  We  have  before  spoken 
of  the  difficulty  of  forming  estimates  of  moral  worth 
and  unworth  which  are  entirely  trustworthy.  And  no 
wonder.  The  most  complex  of  all  existing  concretes 
is  the  human  soul.  It  is  the  child  of  an  unnumbered 
ancestry,  and  has  received  determinations  from  millions 
of  millions  of  sources,  each  one  modified  by,  and  in  turn 
modifying  each  other  and  it.  It  is  the  subject,  in  each 
individual  case,  of  a  unique  environment,  still  further 
modifying  its  instincts  and  proclivities ;  and  besides, 
from  its  character  as  a  true  universal,  it  has  been  the 


318  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

subject  of  mystical  influences  from  the  unseen  and  un- 
known realms  of  existence,  wrought  by  the  Holy 
Spirit.  It  has  not  existed  aloof  from  such  Divine 
grace.  Therefore  each  soul  is  a  new  synthesis  of 
these  endless  determinations,  and  the  result  is  so  com- 
plex that  it  is  hopeless  to  attempt  to  unravel  and  un- 
derstand it.  The  Christian  Scriptures  teach  that 
we  are  not  conditioned  to  form  true  judgments  here, 
and  that  it  is  unwise  to  attempt  them.  "  Judge  noth- 
ing before  the  time."  The  difficulty  of  this  insight 
into  the  idiosyncrasies  of  human  character  would  have 
existed,  even  if  moral  evil  had  not  intruded  into  the 
universe,  even  if  humanity  had  been  normally  devel- 
oped ;  for  each  soul  is  still  essentially  a  unique  schema, 
and  a  unique  synthesis  of  determinations ;  from  which 
endless  variety,  we  may  see,  there  would,  in  the  normal 
development,  have  proceeded  the  conditions  for  activity 
and  enjoyment.  How  much  more  complicated  must 
the  result  be,  when  the  deranging  and  disorganizing 
determinations  of  the  principle  of  evil  have  been  su- 
peradded, making  the  development  abnormal,  and  full 
of  contradictions  perpetually  enhanced  or  undergoing 
partial  or  complete  annulment ! 

What  each  soul  would  be  in  itself  when  removed 
from  the  perturbations  of  the  natural  sphere,  and  of 
our  present  physical  life,  what  allowance  should  be 
made  for  the  countless  influences  which  have  weak- 
ened, destroyed,  or  increased  responsibility, — all  this 
must  be  for  human  judgment  a  hopeless  task,  and  one 
requiring  the  omniscient  insight.  If  then  the  inner 
structure  of  the  soul  is  so  hidden,  and  its  character 
cannot  be  accurately  judged,  how  can  any  human 
wisdom  pronounce  upon  its  needs,  and  characterize 


THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  ELECTION.  319 

as  unadapted  the  treatment  it  receives  from  the 
Divine  Ruler  through  any  modification  of  the  en- 
vironment ?  Admitting  the  Divine  Science  and  Po- 
tence,  and  an  end  which  we  must  pronounce  worthy, 
it  must  directly  follow  that  through  all  the  seeming 
confusion  a  clear  purpose  runs,  and  that  each  soul 
receives  the  treatment  which  it  needs,  for  its  own 
recovery,  and  for  the  attainment  of  the  all-compre- 
hending end.  To  hold  that  any  rational  being  capable 
of  moral  distinctions  and  of  moral  life,  whether  or 
not  developed  into  moral  activity,  is  unregarded,  and 
neglected  by  the  Divine  thought  and  love,  is  to 
assault  the  very  foundation  of  our  faith,  is  suicidal, 
and  cuts  away  the  root  of  all  religion,  revelation,  and 
morality  itself. 

Many  do  not,  or  cannot  bear  this  trial,  and  deliber- 
ately prefer,  or  think  they  are  forced  into  the  latter 
alternative  ;  and  thus  Atheism  comes  to  exist ;  and 
thus,  too,  Atheism  may  be  less  blameworthy  than  is 
alleged,  and  be  only  a  form  of  moral  trial ;  for  in  spite 
of  the  commitment  of  the  mind  to  this  sad  and  pessi- 
mistic alternative,  it  may  show,  manifestly  still,  that 
it  retains  as  part  of  its  consciousness  the  validity  of 
moral  distinctions  ;  it  may  still  feel  the  beauty  of  sacri- 
fice, and  thus  have  the  elements  of  faith  in  spite  of 
its  denial.  It  may  still  hold  grasp  upon  the  reality, 
even  though  it  reject  any  proposition  about  it,  and 
turn  itself  away  from  any  symbol  of  the  same  ad- 
dressed to  the  understanding;  or  the  imagination. 
And  if  so  it  can  be  conducted  logically  back  to  the 
very  proposition  that  it  has  denied. 

From  the  Divine  thoughtfulness  and  care,  there- 
fore, none  can  be  excluded.     The  uncultured  races 


32o  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

who  have  seemed  to  be  stationary  for  many  genera- 
tions have  made  progress.  Given  time  enough  and 
careful  examination,  even  we  could  see  that.  If  prog- 
ress in  the  individual,  then  necessarily  modification 
in  the  race.  If  progress  in  the  race,  then  necessarily 
modification  of  the  individual.  Character  is  formed, 
in  this  narrower  set  of  conditions,  still  in  variety,  and 
its  moral  status  determined.  It  seems  plain  enough, 
and  we  run  no  risk  in  saying  that  for  the  mass  of  man- 
kind here  on  earth  moral  perfection  is  not  the  imme- 
diate Divine  intent,  and  set  as  the  end  of  activity, 
and  therefore  that  this  is  not  the  key  by  which  to  un- 
lock the  mystery  of  providence.  The  intellectual 
conditions  are  not  supplied  for  such  an  end.  These 
latter  have  been  given  only  to  a  portion  of  the  human 
race,  who  are  to  lead  the  rest,  by  what  seems  to  us  a 
very  slow  process,  into  and  along  the  pathway  of 
knowledge.  The  moral  and  religious  conditions  are 
wanting,  and  have  been  supplied  to  a  (possibly  more 
limited)  portion  of  the  human  race,  that  these  may 
lead  and  leaven  the  remainder,  and  that  the  loving  and 
sacrificial  spirit  may  have  field  to  work  upon,  and  the 
opportunity  to  intensify  itself.  And  if  so,  then  the 
Divine  intent,  which  alone  is  universal,  i.  e.,  for  the 
whole  human  race,  not  being  moral  perfection,  or 
even  the  utmost  moral  and  religious  growth,  is  simply 
moral  probation  :  and  thus  again,  negatively  and 
through  the  principle  of  exclusion,  does  it  appear 
that  there  is  no  moral  probation  after  death.  The 
conditions  for  religious  growth,  and  the  attainment 
thereby  of  moral  perfection,  are  the  actualities  of  the 
Intermediate  State.  The  providential  treatment  of 
the  individual,  or  of  any  race  or  portion  of  mankind, 


THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  ELECTION.  321 

is  conditioned  by  the  needs  of  the  totality,  who  are 
to  be  redeemed  and  regenerated,  and  the  Divine 
plans  and  processes  are  ruled  accordingly.  The  ad- 
vance in  scientific  knowledge  is  sure  to  add  proba- 
bility and  confirmation  to  this  Biblical  doctrine,  as  the 
subtle  influences  which  change  humanity  are  brought 
more  and  more  to  light. 

However,  it  is  apparent,  even  now,  that  the  grand 
providential  scheme  includes  two  currents  of  progress, 
under  differing  physical,  mental,  and  religious  condi- 
tions, involving  in  each  case  a  differing  set  of  relations 
to  the  universe,  each  having  its  own  laws,  and  which 
are  not  contradictory  but  supplementary  to  each  other, 
yet  each  having  the  same  end  ;  two  streams  now  flow- 
ing, the  one  before  our  partial  sight  and  knowledge, 
the  other  passing  below  our  consciousness,  and  wisely 
excluded  from  the  same,  yet  each  having  or  to  have 
the  same  issue  and  termination,  viz.,  the  attainment 
for  the  morally  perfect  of  self-knowledge,  and  the  con- 
ditions for  all  knowledge  ;  therefore  the  vindication 
for  human  thought  of  the  Divine  justice,  truth,  and 
love.  This  is  Judgment  indeed,  and  is  the  culminat- 
ing point  of  the  process  now  proceeding,  and  has  its 
own  Day. 

It  is  not  needful  that  we  should  be  able  to  distin- 
guish and  describe  the  kind  of  knowledge,  or  the 
degree  of  attainment,  that  will  be  reached  by  the  last 
generation  upon  the  earth.  The  discovery  of  nature's 
structure  and  laws  is  proceeding  in  our  own  day  with 
marvellous  rapidity  and  success,  and  she  is  step  by 
step  so  conquered,  that  men  have  become  very  hope- 
ful, and  perhaps  too  sanguine, — for  there  must  be  a 
limit  to  these  victories,  since  nature's  forces  still  show 

Vol.  II. 


322  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

no  sign  of  abatement  in  their  hostility.  Through  the 
ordinary  methods  of  the  attainment  of  knowledge 
death  can  never  be  avoided,  though  the  duration  of 
human  life  may  be  greatly  lengthened.  The  sum  of 
individual  mental  attainment  can  never  be  transmitted 
in  toto  to  another,  and  every  thinker  must  make  a 
new  beginning.  Psychological  knowledge  may  pro- 
ceed indefinitely,  and  be  so  adjusted  to  that  which 
comes  ab  extra  that  a  satisfactory  philosophy  of  the 
universe  may  be  reached,  which,  however,  will  have 
to  contend  with  its  rivals.  But  the  moral  and  reli- 
gious pre-requisites  for  the  attainment  of  true  synthetic 
knowledge  will  at  length  be  possessed  by  the  Church, 
the  body  of  the  believing,  whose  faith  will  have  been 
strengthened  by  trial,  and  purified,  and  whose  insight 
will  be  piercing  when  once  the  clouds  are  removed. 
Thus  the  ethical  pre-requisite  for  what  may  seem  a  new 
Divine  gift,  but  which  is  the  instatement  of  the  ideal 
relation,  the  victory  over  nature,  the  reversal  of  the 
present  relation  to  her,  will  at  length  be  had  ;  and 
there  will  be  a  generation  in  which  the  faithful  ones 
will  still  be  affected  by  the  alien  and  opposing  prin- 
ciple of  disorder,  through  heredity  and  intermarriage, 
yet  will  hold  all  truth  in  harmony  either  by  conscious 
or  potential  knowledge.  This  latter  must  be  true  of 
all  undeveloped  souls,  of  all  children,  whose  moral 
probation  must  still  have  been  possible,  even  though 
it  be  referred  back  to  the  rudimental  consciousness. 
The  principle  of  faith,  having  spiritual  origin,  may  be 
inherited  as  well  as  any  physical  proclivity.  This 
profound  truth,  which  has  been  toilsomely  reached  by 
science  and  philosophy,  the  Christian  Church  naively 
held  and  acted  upon,  as  is  shown  in  her  baptism  of 


THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  ELECTION.  323 

infants  and  nurture  of  children.  The  existence  of 
souls  mentally  and  morally  undeveloped  will  furnish 
no  difficulty  then  for  thinking  the  existence  of  a  gen- 
eration ethically  advanced  towards  the  perfection  of 
faith  ;  for  the  religious  basis  of  the  same  will  have 
been  laid  ;  and  we  may  hold  that  such  souls,  when 
the  external  conditions  of  knowledge  are  presented, 
would  blossom  spontaneously  into  faith.  What  will 
be  needed  then  for  such  a  generation  will  be  simply 
the  passing  away  of  the  phantasmagoria,  the  obscura- 
tions which  have  come  from  knowledge  reached 
through  brain  action  and  the  physical  organism.  The 
centre  of  outlook  will  have  been  reached,  and  what 
more  will  be  needed  will  be  the  clarification  of  the 
external  atmosphere.  The  tried  and  faithful  soul  will 
know  itself  when  it  is  permitted  to  know  God  and  his 
relation  to  mankind  and  the  meaning  of  the  process 
through  which  He  has  led  the  human  race.  The 
key-stone  of  the  arch  of  knowledge  now  only  dimly 
seen,  will  then  be  supplied,  and  the  whole  fabric  will 
flash  into  illumination  and  integrity.  This  must  needs 
be  a  sudden  occurrence.  The  preparations  have  been 
made  in  secret,  but  in  one  burst  the  eye  of  the  soul 
will  cleave  its  outer  film,  when  its  vision  shall  have 
become  keen  enough  to  penetrate  what  will  then  be 
disclosed. 

Meanwhile  the  souls  of  the  faithful  departed  will 
have  been  undergoing  a  parallel  preparation.  They 
will  have  harmonized  their  knowledge  of  the  past 
with  all  present  incoming  knowledge,  this  knowledge 
being  not  of  mere  succession  of  events,  but  of  the 
essentially  changing  relations,  the  evolution  of  the 
idea  ;  and  along  with  this  their  faithful  allegiance  to 


324  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

their  Divine  parent  and  their  Divine-human  brother 
will  have  been  strengthened.  But  they  too  will  be 
awaiting  the  harmonization  of  all  knowledge,  and  the 
fulfilment  of  their  aspiration.  They  have  known  the 
trial  of  death,  and  the  withdrawal  of  the  field  of  their 
manifold  activity,  and  the  shrinking  of  energy  to  its 
pure  spiritual  form  ;  and  they  too  must  long  to  leap 
out  into  the  field  of  its  physical  exercise,  and  its 
varied  activity,  and  to  measure  the  fact,  and  experi- 
ence the  joy  of  the  universal  brotherhood.  The  in- 
terval between  death  and  the  final  escape  will  not 
have  been  arbitrary,  will  have  been  required  by  and 
adjusted  to  the  growth  of  the  entire  organism,  and 
hence  to  the  needs  of  each  member  of  the  same. 
The  identical  result  in  spiritual  preparedness  will  have 
been  reached  by  the  first  generation  which  died  upon 
the  earth,  by  each  intervening  generation  which  will 
die,  and  by  the  generation  which  will  not  die,  and  all 
at  the  same  moment.  The  streams  will  be  ready  to 
commingle,  and  they  will  flow  together  when  God 
shall  burst  the  barrier  which  divides  them.  This  will 
be  the  completion  of  the  process  of  discrimination, 
the  end  of  and  manifestation  of  Judgment.  This 
will  be  the  clean  separation  of  good  and  evil,  of  truth 
and  error,  as  subjectively  determining,  to  be  followed 
by  an  external  separation,  and  the  termination  of  all 
militancy.  The  obscuring  mists  will  sink  from  all 
mental  vision,  and  the  atmosphere  upward  be  pure 
and  radiant.  That  great  physical  changes  will  accom- 
pany and  follow  upon  this  is  in  strict  analogy  with 
what  we  have  observed  has  gone  before.  This  will 
be  the  first  aspect  of  the  regeneration  of  the  xriai?. 
This   then    is  the  explanation  of  the  declaration 


THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  ELECTION.         325 

that  the  last  generation  of  believers  on  the  earth  will 
not,  and  need  not  die.  It  will  have  reached  through 
earthly  trial  and  development  the  same  stadmm  of 
preparedness  for  the  crisis  that  will  have  been  reached 
by  those  who  have  passed  through  the  article  of 
death.  There  will  be  nothing  arbitrary  or  exceptional 
in  the  Divine  procedure,  in  the  change  and  adaptation 
of  the  environment.  All  this  is  only  rendering  ex- 
plicit what  is  implicit  in  the  declaration  that  "  He 
who  has  begun  a  good  work  upon  us  will  continue  it 
till  the  day  of  Christ."  It  is  only  enabling  the  un- 
derstanding, the  imagination,  and  the  emotions  to 
find  satisfactory  meaning  in,  and  with  some  degree  of 
confidence  to  find  rest  and  hope  in,  these  apostolic 
words. 

And,  as  we  have  said,  the  coming  of  this  crisis  of 
Judgment  will  and  must  be  sudden,  and  when  men  do 
not  look  for  it,  and  have  almost  given  up  the  hope 
for  it.  The  very  preparedness  for  the  change  itself 
requires  that  the  signs  of  it  should  be  hidden.  All 
boons  to  faith  must  be  withdrawn,  that  it  may  bear 
the  trial  and  the  test,  and  acquire  its  immortal  fibre. 
"Where  is  the  promise  of  his  coming?"  will  men 
say  ;  and  the  apostle  commends  those  who  live,  not- 
withstanding this  paucity  of  tokens,  with  reference  to 
the  final  day, — who  still  long  for  "  his  appearing." 

The  idea  of  Judgment  is  of  an  illumining  process, 
wherein  God's  ways  are  seen  and  vindicated,  in  which 
all  error  and  misconception  disappear,  where  doubt 
and  faith  are  no  longer  needed  and  become  no  more 
possible,  where  the  Divine  Judgment  and  all  human 
judgments  of  the  moral  and  religious  status  abso- 
lutely coincide  ;  or  rather,  perhaps,  when  the  sacred 


326  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

presence  by  its  own  enlightening-  power  shall  dissipate 
the  last  remaining  remnant  of  such  misconception  ; — 
when  too  the  shame  of  the  Christian  believer,  the 
down-weighing  of  all  self-reproach,  shall  be  arrested 
and  dissipated  by  a  glad  surprise,  and  the  mistakes 
and  sophistries  of  the  evil  and  faithless  one  by  a  sad 
surprise  :  all  which  is  indicated  in  the  glimpses  which 
Jesus,  in  his  parable,  gives  us  of  that  day  and  its  oc- 
currences. 

And  yet,  since  mankind  thus  spiritualized  will 
therein  lapse  into  a  new  relation  to  the  physical 
universe,  and  man  will  resume  through  his  bodily 
organism  his  more  intimate  connection  with  it,  the 
Judgment  must  also  be  an  event  occurring  in  space 
and  time,  be  something  visible  and  audible,  be  in  its 
physical  aspect  a  symbol  and  a  correspondent  of 
what  is  passing  in  the  psychical  realm.  It  is  not  for- 
bidden to  imagination,  then,  to  busy  itself  with  the 
outer  magnificence.  The  resources  of  the  material 
universe  will  be  availed  of,  and  men  will  see  that  it  is 
no  passing  phantasm,  coming  out  of  nothing  and  pass- 
ing into  nothing,  but  the  manifestation  of  the  Divine 
Glory,  now  made  apparent,  not  in  its  aboriginal  sim- 
plicity, but  determined  and  enriched. 

If  there  be  any  thing  yet  needed  to  quicken  the 
penetration  of  the  soul  into  all  truth,  and  likely  so 
to  quicken  it,  it  will  be  this  manifestation  of  God's 
reality,  and  of  the  reality  of  all  that  He  has  revealed 
for  faith.  It  would  appear  for  our  distant  thought 
and  regard  almost  a  shock,  something  like  such  a 
shock  as  befell  St.  Peter  when,  seeing  the  Divine 
character  of  his  Master  disclosed,  he  said :  "  Depart 
from  me,  for  I  am  a  sinful  man,  O  Lord,"  causing  the 


THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  ELECTION.  327 

believing  soul  to  sink  back  for  one  moment  into  the 
sense  of  unworthiness, — the  last  poignant  touch  of 
shame,  the  completion  and  yet  the  expiration  of  its 
penitence,  ere  it  should  spring  up  into  a  joy  that  will 
be  perennial.  This  is  the  last  crisis  in  the  career  of 
the  Christian  soul,  the  disappearance  of  the  last  rem- 
nant of  its  imperfection,  the  beginning  of  an  endless 
flight  in  which  the  wings  will  never  tire. 

What  sometimes  occurs  to  us,  in  the  experience  of 
our  earthly  life, — the  wonderful  quickening  of  our 
faculties  when  under  emotion  strained  to  the  utmost — 
may  give  us  some  notion  of  the  possible  quickening 
of  our  faculties  when  the  clogs  of  ordinary  brain  action 
are  removed,  and  when  we  have  beating  upon  us  the 
stimulus  of  this  Divine  disclosure, — when  the  great- 
est of  all  events  shall  be  happening, — when  the  su- 
preme centre  of  knowledge  and  power  and  the  out- 
pouring and  return-welcoming  fountain  of  Love  shall 
be  thus  suddenly  disclosed.  In  this  rapture  the  soul 
must  expire  as  to  its  earthly  life,  and  be  born  again 
into  the  life  of  heaven  and  a  new  universe. 


CHAPTER   XXVII. 

HEAVEN, THE    REGENERATION    OF    THE    XTlfflS. 

If  we  use  the  phrases  "  liberation  of  the  HTiffis," 
"  regeneration  of  the  xrtoie"  there  starts  the  inquiry 
whether  any,  and  if  so,  what,  structural  changes  in  the 
universe,  or  modification  of  nature's  laws,  are  required 
to  be  thought  to  authorize  and  give  meaning  to  these 
expressions.  At  first  thought  it  might  be  concluded 
that  no  such  change  was  necessary,  that  all  that  would 
be  needful  would  be  the  change  of  the  relation  of  the 
spiritual  soul  to  the  universe, — that  having  acquired 
perfect  liberty  as  a  consequence  of  its  real  freedom, 
all  the  hostility  of  nature  would  have  disappeared,  that 
she  would  no  longer  be  terrible  to  one  who  could  not 
be  injured  by  her  movements,  and  who  could  rule  her 
forces  and  make  use  of  her  capacities.  Nature  would 
no  longer  be  deformed  nor  ugly,  for  what  now  looks 
like  that  would  be  appreciated  as  the  recuperative 
structural  movement  running  after  some  result  of 
beauty.  Her  magnitudes  would  no  longer  be  sub- 
lime and  awe-inspiring,  for  since  all  size  is  relative,  its 
distinctions  would  disappear  for  the  soul  that  could 
pierce  at  will  all  the  recesses  of  space,  and  fold  itself 
around  the  present  vast  as  readily  as  it  could  thread 
the  sinuosities  of  the  present  little.  All  present 
known  sublimity,  mechanical  or  dynamical,  would 
have  melted  into  a  higher  beauty ;  though  the  emo- 

328 


HEA  VEN.  329 

tion  would  exist  still,  but  only  from  new  unfoldings 
and  outgushings  ever  from  the  Divine  creative  foun- 
tain. The  liberated  and  regenerated  soul  might  be 
satisfied  with  nature  as  she  is  and  is  to  be,  might  re- 
joice in  all  animal  enjoyment,  and  delight  in  all  animal 
beauty,  whether  of  form,  color,  or  motion,  as  now. 

But  the  universe  could  still  hardly  be  said  to  be  lib- 
erated, regenerated,  and  made  correspondent  to  the 
perfected  soul  by  this  change  of  the  subjective  rela- 
tion, unless  animal  pain  should  also  disappear,  and, 
perhaps,  unless  nature  should  cease  entirely  to  hint 
of  the  strife  between  good  and  evil,  and  afford  only 
beautiful  symbols.  If  this  struggle  is  to  cease,  and  the 
warring  elements  be  drawn  apart,  if  the  good  is  to 
rise  in  a  positive  up-springing,  and  evil  to  subside  to 
its  own  place,  or  disappear  at  the  negative  pole, — 
then  it  would  seem  that  either  nature's  symbols  must 
be  capable,  without  any  structural  change,  of  new  in- 
terpretation,— or  she  must  cease  to  afford  symbols  of 
the  militancy  of  the  moral  conflict, — then  animal  pain 
must  have  ceased  to  exist.  It  would  by  no  means  be 
needful  that  animal  death  should  cease.  Human 
death,  being  a  crisis  in  the  career  of  an  immortal  and 
responsible  soul,  capable  of  knowing  and  reflecting 
upon  its  own  death,  is  something  other  than  animal 
death.  There  is  no  reason  to  think  that  any  animal 
contemplates  its  own  death,  or  has  any  mental  pain  at 
its  physical  premonition.  In  obedience  to  an  instinct, 
when  the  vital  forces  ebb,  it  seeks  its  repose  to  expire. 
So  then,  our  aesthetic  sense  is  not  violated  that  aggre- 
gations of  matter  are  endowed  with  the  power  of 
motion  and  the  sense  of  enjoyment  for  a  time,  and 
then  yield  to  give  place  to  other  nuclei,  or  centres  of 


330  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

motion  and  enjoyment.  So  far  as  the  animal  has 
been  developed  and  caught  some  human  characteris- 
tics of  soul  beauty,  it  is  entirely  allowable  to  think 
that  it  may  be  held  in  life  by  the  human  soul  that 
loves  it.  All  that  would  be  needed  not  to  shock  the 
aesthetic  sense  would  be  the  removal  of  animal  pain ; 
and  for  this  it  would  seem  that  nature's  laws  must  be 
modified  and  structural  changes  occur.  To  have  ani- 
mal life  disappear  from  the  renewed  nature  would  be 
to  rob  it  of  much  that  beautifies  and  enriches  it.  This 
would  be  a  shrinking  rather  than  a  development, 
abortive  rather  than  rudimentary,  a  degradation 
rather  than  an  elevation.  The  thought  is  a  disturbing 
and  needless  surplusage. 

The  same  must  be  true  of  all  plant  life.  This  too 
forms  much  of  the  beauty  of  our  present  earth,  and  we 
are  chilled  and  disappointed  in  the  anticipation  of  a 
world  from  which  it  should  be  absent.  And,  as  before, 
the  presence  of  death  here  would  not  shock  our  aes- 
thetic sense,  since  endless  reproductions  of  the  beau- 
tiful thing  would  be  forever  upspringing.  The  ex- 
pressions of  Scripture  which  speak  of  the  "  immortal 
fruits,"  and  that  "  the  lion  shall  lie  down  with  the 
lamb,"  etc., — may  be  taken  as  symbolical,  and  in 
their  literal  sense  must  be  so  taken  ;  but  if  vegetable 
and  animal  life  are  not  to  be  missed  in  the  "  new 
heavens  and  new  earth,"  they  are  something  more 
than  symbolical.  The  plant  and  the  animal,  each  in  its 
idea  and  its  manifestation,  exist  still. 

But  the  one  difficulty  still  remains,  the  needed  ces- 
sation of  animal  pain.  Nature  now  shows  an  effort 
after  economy  in  this,  and  contrives  to  reduce  it  to  a 
minimum.     She  shuns  and  does  not  riot  in   animal 


HEAVEN.  331 

distress,  but  she  does  not  extinguish  it.  A  fetter  is 
upon  her  still,  and  our  aesthetic  judgment,  which  is 
entirely  a  rational  requirement,  cannot  abide  the 
contradiction.  To  extinguish  utterly  animal  pain  the 
camivora  must  change  their  nature,  or  must  disap- 
pear. The  lion  must  eat  grass  like  the  ox,  or  lions 
must  cease  to  exist.  We  acknowledge  then  that  we 
are  here  face  to  face  with  a  dilemma  quite  impossible 
of  solution  by  our  present  science  and  philosophy. 
There  are  other  difficulties  too,  but  hardly  dilemmas, 
and  not  formidable.  Our  solar  system  shows  us  here 
and  there  a  burnt  out  world,  as  our  own  moon,  which 
seems  to  have  no  function  in  the  economy  of  that 
system,  ending  in  itself,  but  to  be  of  use  only  to  its 
governing  planet,  and  to  keep  the  whole  system  in 
order  by  its  contribution  of  attraction.  It  shows  us, 
too,  orbs  in  the  preparative  stages,  seemingly  not  yet 
fitted  for  animal  or  human  life.  And  our  sun  will  one  day 
burn  itself  out  and  end  so  the  present  cycle.  Whence 
are  to  arise  the  physical  forces  which  shall  renew  all 
this,  cause  it  to  start  afresh, — in  what  new  forms  the 
sum  of  energy  will  manifest  itself,  into  what  new 
modes  of  motion  it  will  break,  our  present  science 
cannot  show.  There  are  other  systems  indeed,  and 
other  worlds,  in  which  the  liberated  soul  might  expa- 
tiate, and  the  Divine  resources  here  are  inexhaustible  ; 
but  this  is  not  fulfilling  the  promise  of  new  heavens 
and  new  earth.  "  New  earth  "  is  the  earth  still,  and 
"  new  heavens  "  undoubtedly  refers  to  the  heavens  in 
the  phenomenal  sense,  as  relative  to  our  earth,  and 
probably  includes  our  solar  system,  which  is  a  true 
unit  in  space,  though  not  unrelated  to  other  units. 
The  subtle  chemistry  of  light  and  heat,  which  origi- 


332  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

nates  all  changes  in  our  system,  phenomenally  pro- 
gressive or  retrogressive,  must  start  afresh  from  its 
original  fountain  ;  the  mystical  life-giving  energy  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  with  a  new  end  in  view,  must  break 
into  a  new  system  of  forces  and  laws,  to  make 
the  system  or  the  universe  correspondent  to  the 
perfected  ethical  commonwealth.  Or, — more  proba- 
bly still, — just  as  the  psyche  is  secretly  and  invisibly 
forming  in  the  chrysalis,  defying  microscopic  scrutiny, 
the  new  earth  and  the  new  heavens  are  already  form- 
ing beneath  the  mask  of  the  old, — as  the  new  body  of 
Christ  was  forming,  even  during  the  period  of  his  hu- 
miliation, and  acquiring  the  Glory  that  shone  through 
on  the  "  holy  mount." 

It  may  be  still  a  question  whether  the  nriai?,  in  the 
mind  of  St.  Paul,  meant  the  total  universe  as  we  think 
it,  or,  as  it  was  known  in  his  more  limited  astronomi- 
cal knowledge,  the  solar  system  merely,  and  the 
starry  expanse  as  relative  to  human  needs.  To  think 
the  former  as  the  truth,  is  to  regard  all  this  congeries 
of  innumerable  stars  and  planets  as  ministering  solely 
to  the  human  race  on  this  planet,  and  to  furnish  a 
field  for  it  to  revel  in.  To  think  the  latter  is  to  regard 
the  Divine  revelation  in  Christ  Jesus  to  concern  our 
own  world,  and  the  system  of  which  it  is  a  part,  and 
allows  us  to  think  that  whatever  is  beyond  is  God's 
own  secret  still,  about  which  we  are  rash,  either  nega- 
tively or  positively  to  dogmatize.  It  is,  on  strictly 
scientific  grounds,  improbable  that  the  sun,  or  any  of 
the  orbs  which  it  enlightens  and  controls,  is  habitable, 
except  our  own  planet,  and  hence  the  conjecture  is 
allowable  that  these  other  orbs,  if  not  to  become  hab- 
itable, are  reserved  for  the  future  uses  of  the  perfected 


HE  A  VEN.  333 

human  race.  There  is  no  reason  a  priori  not  to  think 
that  there  may  be  in  the  outlying  systems  of  the  stel- 
lar expanse,  the  conditions  of  animal  life,  and  races  of 
rational  beings.  Of  this  we  have  no  evidence  from 
science,  and  no  assurance  from  revelation,  but  so  to 
think  offers  no  contradiction.  It  does  not  affect  our 
system  of  truth  to  think  it  or  not  to  think  it.  Yet 
our  very  conviction  of  the  exhaustless  resources  of 
the  Divine  wisdom  may  encourage  us  in  including 
even  this  in  the  declaration  that  "  it  hath  not  entered 
into  the  heart  of  man  to  conceive  what  God  hath  pre- 
pared for  them  that  love  him."  It  opens  for  hope 
and  imagination  new  sources  of  enjoyment,  new  pos- 
sible fellowships,  and  makes  the  fountains  of  bliss 
seem  exhaustless  and  endlessly  variant. 

Thus  the  difficulties,  even  the  dilemma  afforded  by 
animal  pain,  are  not  insuperable.  Our  present  science 
conducts  us  back  to  a  mystical  force,  which  we  Chris- 
tians call  the  energy  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  never  works 
blindly,  but  for  an  end  and  to  realize  an  idea.  We 
recognize  it  as  an  idea.  Therefore  it  exists,  inde- 
pendent of  ourselves,  in  some  mind.  As  potence 
realizes  it,  we  refer  it  to  the  Divine  mind,  avowedly 
or  not.  We  cannot  escape  the  reference.  These 
ideas  are  inter-related.  Their  sum  we  call  the  Divine 
Logos.  Out  of  the  Divine  Glory,  in  its  pure  and 
aboriginal  form,  to  which  science  seeks  to  conduct  us 
back,  yet  leaves  us,  the  present  universe  has  been  de- 
veloped, determined  by  the  Divine  thought  and  energy 
and  become  existent  in  the  multiplicity  of  its  thoughts, 
yet  in  the  unity  of  its  idea.  It  is  moving  forward  to  its 
ultimate  form,  the  aboriginal  glory  enriched  by  the 
perfection  of   the   creature.     The   contradiction  will 


334  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

have  vanished,  and  if  God's  freedom  be  not  a  form  of 
physical  or  metaphysical  necessity, — if  that  seeming 
necessity  or  complex  of  laws  is  but  the  known  form  of 
the  Divine  free  activity,  self-necessitated  only  by  the 
requirements  of  Love,  then  the  new  universe,  or  the 
new  system,  may  issue  from  the  old  at  the  fiat  of  the 
Father,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  move  in  a  new  activity  to 
realize  the  new  earth  and  the  new  heavens,  of  which 
the  Incarnate  One  has  become  the  ethical  centre.  But 
it  will  be  our  own  earth  and  heavens  still,  with  the 
marks  of  its  past  career  upon  it,  just  as  the  glorified 
body  will  be  our  own  still  with  the  marks  of  its  past 
upon  it.  There  will  be  no  severance,  but  complete 
continuity,  and  the  Divine  creative  thought  will  be 
manifest  in  its  issue.  We  shall  have  a  new  chemis- 
try of  light  and  heat,  governed  by  the  laws  which 
have  been  hidden  in  the  old,  and  required  for  the 
realization  of  the  perfected  miais,  and  this  will  include 
no  animal  pain. 

Food  is  now  the  sacrament  of  dependence  for  all 
animal  life,  and  food  will  be  still  necessary  for  the  re- 
generated human  race.  Some  medium  of  sustenta- 
tion  between  the  Creator  and  the  created  must  still 
be,  otherwise  the  created  would  be  independent,  and 
so  essential  Divinity ;  but  the  freedom  which  will 
avail  itself  of  this  is  the  self-necessitation  of  love  ; 
and  so,  to  decline  or  neglect  it  is  unthinkable,  or 
morally  impossible.  Ethically  the  new  race  will  be 
bound  in  closest  union  with  God.  Its  perfection  will 
consist  in  the  infrangible  strength  of  the  personal  tie. 
Love  is  stronger  than  death  or  any  change.  This  tie, 
requiring  manifestation,  will  seek  its  own  food,  which 
through  reciprocal  love  will  be  food  indeed.     We  may 


HEAVEN.  335 

call  it  worship,  and  it  may  have  physical  symbols,  but 
here  there  is  no  material  with  which  imagination  may 
deal,  and  all  symbolic  utterances  hitherto  must  be 
merely  provisional  and  tentative.  This  adoration,  or 
endeavor  to  melt  into  the  Divine  heart,  will  be  the 
highest  conceivable,  and  hence  the  acutest  and  in- 
tensest  of  all  emotions,  and  will  constitute  the  highest 
bliss  of  the  perfected  creature.  What  action  will  or 
can  symbolize  it,  this  complex  of  gratitude,  love, 
wonder,  the  appreciation  of  the  beauty  and  amaze- 
ment at  the  grandeur  of  the  Divine  works,  may  seem 
a  matter  of  indifference,  but  will  be  found  to  have  its 
own  intrinsic  fitness.  The  expressions  in  Holy  Scrip- 
ture, couched  in  the  imperfect  form  and  material  of 
human  language,  may,  when  literally  understood,  be 
misleading,  but  are  not  harmful.  They  are  but  the 
poor  endeavor  of  the  finite  mind  to  express  what  is 
unimaginable  in  itself.  The  play  of  the  vulgar  im- 
agination, and  even  of  some  cultured  imagination,  in 
the  endeavor  to  depict  heaven,  its  scenery  and  its  oc- 
cupations, is  sometimes  such,  indeed,  as  to  provoke  a 
smile,  and  its  conspicuous  failures  have  often  given 
occasion  to  the  mockeries  of  unbelief ;  but  the  most 
cultured  imagination,  when  let  loose  to  its  spontane- 
ous play,  can  do  no  better,  except  when  guided  by 
severe  thought. 

We  have  given,  in  a  scattered  way,  all  the  elements 
which  must  constitute  the  heavenly  state  that  can  be 
reached  by  our  pure  thinking.  These  may  be 
summed  up  as  exhibiting  the  normal,  the  ideal  rela- 
tions of  concrete  existence,  and  are  : — First,  individual 
ethical  perfection,  on  which  all  depends.  This  has 
for  its  motive-spring,  religion,  the  personal  bond,  the 


336  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

responsive  and  spontaneous  love  of  the  individual 
soul  to  the  Divine  Love,  which  can  have  the  form  of 
sacrifice  no  more.  Second,  the  mirroring  in  the  inter- 
relations of  the  human  commonwealth  the  harmony 
of  the  immanent  relations  of  the  Godhead,  uniting 
thus  the  members  of  the  same  into  one  organism,  of 
which  Christ  will  be  the  unifying  centre.  Third, 
physical  glorification,  or  the  domination  over  nature, 
over  the  material  of  the  universe,  now  adapted  in  its 
recuperated  state  to  the  activities,  the  desires,  we  may 
say  to  the  caprices,  of  the  purified  and  perfected 
souls,  now  to  be  trusted  in  sharing  the  Divine  potence 
and  presence,  and  sure  never  to  misuse  them, — en- 
dowed even  with  creative  powers  able  to  bring  forth 
endless  combinations  and  new  beauty.  Fourth,  men- 
tal illumination, — the  disappearance  of  all  that  is  con- 
fusing and  bewildering,  and  that  can  produce  error, 
the  possession  of  the  true  centre  of  knowledge, 
whence  every  thing  in  the  scope  of  mental  vision  is 
harmoniously  related,  yet  which  vision  can  be  forever 
extended  towards  the  forever  receding  circumfer- 
ence,— the  discovery  and  enjoyment  of  the  Divine 
thoughts,  the  penetration  of  the  secrets  that  now 
elude  us,  the  wonders  of  the  spatially  little,  as  well 
as  of  the  spatially  great, — the  extension  of  the  vis- 
ion beyond  the  present  bounds  of  knowledge  into 
the  manifold  or  numberless  disclosures  of  the  stel- 
lar universe.  Fifth,  the  extension  of  the  sphere 
of  fellowship  and  love,  in  which  the  penetration 
into  each  new  soul  and  discovery  of  its  content  will 
be  satisfying  from  its  loving  perfection,  and  full  of 
delight  from  its  uniqueness, — in  which  sphere  new 
ties  can  be  formed,  guided  by  special  sympathies  ; — 


HEA  VEN.  337 

for  there  can  be  no  monotony  or  repetition  among  the 
perfected  souls,  as  there  is  none  among  the  souls  un- 
dergoing purification  ;  and  the  classifications  of  which 
human  characters  are  now  susceptible,  as  to  the  pure 
and  sinless  elements  of  the  same,  will  still  exist ; — 
which,  too,  is  indicated  in  the  Christian  Scriptures,  in 
their  vague  classification  of  angelic  beings  into  spirits 
of  power,  service,  love,  and  wisdom, — so  that  even  the 
varieties  of  the  human  mind  will  have  no  transitory 
but  an  eternal  meaning  and  use,  and  will  furnish  an 
exhaustless  field  in  which  love  may  range. 

In  all  this,  indeed,  we  use  language  implying  the 
objective  existence  and  continuance  of  space  and 
time.  For  such  as  deny  this  these  inferences  are  only 
speculations,  and  are  of  little  worth.  They  are  unau- 
thorized transfers  of  the  phenomenal  into  the  nou- 
menal.  This  is  no  place  for  the  full  discussion  of  this 
problem  ;  but  this  much  in  defence  the  present  author 
will  say  :  To  assert  that  space  and  time  have  no  objec- 
tive existence,  is  to  say  that  every  thing  in  space  and 
time  has  no  objective  existence.  To  say  that  eternity 
is  the  denial  of  time,  is  to  use  words  that  have  no 
meaning  for  the  human  mind.  The  Scripture  utter- 
ance, "  With  God  a  thousand  years  are  as  one  day, 
and  one  day  as  a  thousand  years,"  was  not  meant  to 
deny  the  objective  existence  of  time  ;  but  rather  in  its 
very  verbiage  presupposes  time  and  its  divisions,  and 
declares  that  these  are  no  bar  to  the  Divine  mind, 
which  sees  the  end  from  the  beginning,  and  lives  in 
the  contemplation  of  the  idea. 

The  evidence  for  the  objective  existence  of  space 
and  time  is  as  trustworthy  as  that  for  any  conclusion 
reached  by  the  human  intellect.     The  human  mind 

Vol.  II. 


338  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

exists  only  under  the  conditions  of  space  and  time, 
and  to  deny  these  is  to  deny  itself.  Its  logical  pro- 
cesses proceed  from  postulates  which  it  has  owed  to 
the  determinations  possible  only  under  conditions  of 
space  and  time.  To  think  them  away  is  as  impossible 
as  to  imagine  them  away.  We  may  fancy  that  we 
have  gained  the  realm  of  pure  ideas  only,  but  we  owe 
our  discovery  of  the  ideal  only  to  our  knowledge  of 
the  real  and  actual.  Besides,  in  this  attempted  ab- 
straction we  have  lost  the  most  important  factor  of 
our  consciousness.  The  conditions  for  enjoyment 
have  disappeared,  or  it  is  reduced  to  mere  abstract 
contemplation  of  what  interests  us  only  as  it  has 
reality.  Here  is  a  dead  sameness, — no  sphere  of  ac- 
tivity or  change,  no  development  to  be  watched,  no 
infinity.  Enjoyment  has  a  right  to  insist  upon  the 
conditions  for  activity  and  variety. 

If  then  space  and  time  are  delusions,  the  universe 
is  a  delusion,  and  we  are  reduced  to  a  purely  subjec- 
tive ideal  philosophy.  If  they  are  subjective  forms, 
these  subjective  forms  are  an  element  of  the  abstract 
objectivity,  and  neither  these  forms  nor  their  content 
can  be  thought  as  existing  apart.  The  idea  of  devel- 
opment is  beneath  all  change,  subjective,  or  seemingly 
objective,  and  if  the  latter  is  only  seeming,  we  are  in 
a  delusion  that  can  never  be  lifted.  This  idea  alone 
gives  us  the  highest  and  most  satisfying  conception 
of  ourselves,  of  our  capacity  and  dignity  as  self-cre- 
ating beings.  Abstract  time  is  still  time,  though 
appreciable  for  developing  beings  only  from  its  deter- 
minations. Abstract  space  is  still  space.  The  very 
relativeness  of  locality  requires  the  assumption  of  an 
absolute  beneath  it.     Both  time   and  space  become 


HEA  VEN.  339 

apprehensible  only  from  the  determinations  of  the  Di- 
vine creative  thought  and  act,  in  which  the  universe 
appears,  and  the  finite  minds  to  apprehend  it,  and  to 
which  its  determinations  are  adapted.  Science  shows 
us  no  beofinninof  and  no  end  of  time,  and  no  bounda- 
ries  to  space.  They  are  the  eternal  forms  of  the 
Divine  Glory  and  of  the  Divine  Activity.  Philosophy 
cannot  think  away  space  and  time,  and  revelation 
does  not  exclude  them.  Both  conduct  us  back  to 
their  pure  form,  in  which  imagination  has  no  material 
with  which  to  disport,  to  the  Divine  Glory  in  which 
they  are  implicit,  and  which  the  Divine  thought  and 
energy  have  made  explicit.  And  it  is  beyond  the 
province  of  Philosophy  or  Theology  to  say  dogmati- 
cally that  space  and  time  have  not  been  ever  explicit, 
and  that  the  Divine  activity  ever  slumbered,  and 
went  not  beyond  itself.  We  adopt,  then,  on  philo- 
sophic grounds,  the  implications  of  the  Christian 
Scriptures,  and  find  in  the  latter  confirmation  of  the 
former,  an  aid  to  Philosophy,  and  a  corrective  to  its 
meanderings  and  aberrancies.1 

1  The  celebrated  controversy  between  Dr.  Samuel  Clarke  and  M.  Leibnitz 
concerning  space  and  time  does  not  issue  in  a  result  clear,  convincing,  and 
secure,  though  the  analysis  of  Leibnitz  is  more  thorough.  Later  speculation 
has  confirmed  some  of  the  conclusions  reached  by  either  author. 

Allowing  space  to  be,  for  thought,  the  ideal  form  or  possibility  of  determined 
existences,  and  time  to  be  the  ideal  form  or  possibility  of  the  Divine  activity, — 
if,  from  the  self-necessitation  of  Love,  God  in  his  essential  being  is  eternally 
active,  and  cannot  otherwise  be  thought,  then — space  and  time  constitute  an 
element  in  the  only  true  objectivity.  As  pure,  indeed,  they  have  no  separate 
existence.  Thought  can  make  no  predications  whatever  concerning  pure 
space  and  time. 

Here  is  another  illustration  of  the  fault  of  the  human  mind  in  endeavoring 
to  draw  conclusions  from,  or  make  assertions  concerning  the  abstracted  ele- 
ments of  the  concrete,  which  have  no  existence  apart.  This  is  the  vice  of  a 
merely  formal  logic,  herein  shown  to  be  an  insufficient  or  untrustworthy 
method. 


j4o  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

The  human  heart  cannot  be  left  without  its  food 
and  the  satisfaction  of  its  longings  any  more  than  the 
human  mind  can  be,  in  the  Divine  intent.  A  Philos- 
ophy too  ideal  is  too  dry  and  cold  to  be  true  ;  as  any 
materialistic  philosophy  is  too  gross  and  degrading, 
too  regardless  of  the  finer  needs  of  humanity  to  be 
true.  What  love  requires  is  possible  and  actual.  It 
only  is  the  regulator  of  our  thoughts,  as  it  has  been 
the  regulator  of  the  universe.  Nothing  that  it  re- 
quires can  be  impossible,  nothing  that  it  longs  for. 
"  Love  is  of  God,  and  he  that  loveth  knoweth  God." 

Yet  all  this,  to  which  we  seem  to  have  been  led  by 
a  strict  dialectic,  is  cast  into  the  shadow  of  doubt  from 
one  source,  but  from  one  source  only.  Could  we 
exclude  this  darkness  the  mind  might  abide  in  the 
Supreme  Light,  but  moral  evil  casts  its  gloom  upon  us, 
contradictions  and  difficulties  spring  up,  the  human 
mind  falters,  and  the  human  heart  weeps,  and  rushes 
to  its  anchor  amidst  the  tempest.  And  thus  we  ap- 
proach and  cannot  turn  away  from  the  most  difficult 
of  topics  upon  which  to  think,  the  destiny  of  moral 
evil,  rather  of  the  souls  who  may  be  chargeable 
with  it. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

THE    DESTINY    OF    THE    MORALLY    EVIL, PRELUDE    AND 

DIFFICULTIES. 

Our  effort  hitherto  has  been  to  discover  what  from 
a  priori  grounds  and  from  a  posteriori  evidence  has 
been  the  Divine  plan  for  human  recovery,  for  the 
extirpation  of  the  disease  and  consequent  disorder 
which  afflict  the  human  race  ;  and  to  show  that  by 
either  method  the  same  result  in  thought  is  reached. 
This  has  been  in  the  main  a  speculative  enquiry,  and 
the  Scriptural  account  of  the  revelation  of  God  in 
Jesus  Christ  and  his  career  has  been  used  as  an  aid 
and  corrective,  and  for  parallel  confirmation.  The- 
ology as  a  science  is  not  independent  of  the  former 
method,  for  however  induced  by  exegetical  procedure, 
it  starts  with  speculative  assumptions.  It  has  its  Phi- 
losophy, its  pure  Theology,  and  its  Anthropology  as 
the  ground  for  the  possibility  of  the  Christian  revela- 
tion itself,  and  if  these  established  as  rational  are 
found  to  be  implicit  in  the  alleged  revelation,  this  is 
an  additional  evidence  that  it  is  such,  and  thus  the 
speculative  and  exegetical  procedures  confirm  each 
other.  We  have  endeavored  to  show  that  the  plan 
for  human  recovery  as  outlined  in  the  Christian  tradi- 
tions, written  and  unwritten,  has  inner  coherence  and 
absolute  rationality  :  and  thus  that  there  is  no  firm 
and  sufficient  ground  for  unbelief.     This  result  would 

341 


342  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

receive  additional  confirmation  could  it  be  maintained 
on  either  speculative  grounds  or  from  exegetical  results, 
that  the  Divine  plan  would  be  accomplished,  and  the 
idea  realized,  for  the  whole  human  race, — that,  ac- 
cording to  the  latter,  the  Divine  scheme  was  to 
accomplish  a  universal  restoration  ; — or  if,  according 
to  the  former,  any  way  could  be  exhibited  for  thought 
by  which  moral  evil  and  its  results  could  disappear 
from  the  universe.  On  exegetical  grounds  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  ideas  of  redemption  and  regeneration  has 
equal  self-consistency  and  truth  whether  or  not  it  is 
to  be  realized  for  the  election,  the  new  creation  in 
Christ,  or  whether  for  the  entire  human  race.  No 
wonder  that  the  latter  view,  which  possesses  so  much 
relief  for  the  mind,  has  had  fascination  for  many,  and 
that  arduous  efforts  have  been  made  to  find  it  or 
confirm  it  in  the  New-Testament  writings  ;  or  that 
philosophies  have  been  adopted  which  so  define  moral 
evil  as  to  make  this  universal  recovery  from  it  think- 
able and  possible. 

The  notion  of  conditional  immortality  we  have 
heretofore  endeavored  to  show  is  untenable,  intro- 
duces more  difficulty  than  it  allays,  is  indeed  suicidal,  as 
weakening,  if  not  cutting  away  entirely,  the  grounds  for 
holding  sin  and  responsibility  as  facts  ;  that,  in  short, 
it  requires  simply  an  ethic  of  expediency  and  cannot 
maintain  the  absolute  character  of  moral  distinctions. 
The  notion  of  an  universal  restoration,  however  desir- 
able it  may  be  to  hold  it,  has  immense  exegetical 
difficulties,  and  speculative  ones  perhaps  insuperable. 
Certainly  the  Church,  the  Christian  brotherhood,  has 
never  held  it  as  a  tradition.  It  has  thought,  spoken, 
written,  and  acted  upon  the  alternative  notion,  and 


THE  DESTINY  OF  THE  MORALLY  EVIL.     343 

assumed  that  the  Divine  plan  has  been  to  bring  out 
the  election  and  elevate  it  to  its  perfection  and  glory, 
leaving  a  residuum  of  evil  still  concreted  in  human 
souls,  as  to  the  fate  of  which  it  has  either  dogmatically 
or  falteringly  speculated.  The  writers  of  the  New 
Testament  in  general  go  upon  the  same  supposition 
and  speak,  in  language  perhaps  altogether  figurative, 
of  the  fate  of  this  evil  residuum.  Only  here  and 
there  occur  passages  which  can  be  drawn  or  tortured 
into  confirmation  of  the  notion  of  a  universal  restora- 
tion. There  is  just  enough  that  is  obscure  and  strange 
about  them  to  keep  alive  the  hope  that  within  the 
possibilities  such  a  thing  may  yet  be,  and  to  encourage 
the  opinion  that  the  Scripture  writers  were  withheld 
from  fuller  disclosures,  and  allowed  to  give  only  these 
dim  and  dark  hints.  If  this  be  so  indeed,  there  is  an 
apparent  antinomy,  as  some  have  concluded  and 
declared  it  to  be  incapable  of  resolution.1  This  vibra- 
tion, then,  these  alternatives,  each  having  some  Scrip- 
tural support,  may  be  intended  as  a  discipline  for 
faith ;  for  if  a  universal  restoration  is  indeed  the 
Divine  plan  and  sure  of  accomplishment,  there  seems 
no  reason  why  it  should  not  have  been  explicitly 
avowed  and  more  clearly  stated,  as  the  ground  for 
mental  relief,  hope,  and  zeal  among  the  body  of 
Christian  believers  and  workers.  The  ground  should 
seem  at  least  as  firm  as  the  alternative  notion.  But 
this  can  hardly  be  held.  The  Scripture  texts  com- 
monly alleged  as  supporting  the  doctrine  of  universal 
restoration  lend  themselves  readily  to  the  require- 
ments of  the  other  scheme.  The  predications  about 
the  Christian  brotherhood  are  in  themselves  equally 

1  Vide  Martensen's  "Dogmatics." 


344  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

consistent,  whether  or  not  this  brotherhood  is  to  be 
co-extensive  with  the  human  race ;  but  if  it  is  not 
to  be,  we  have  before  us  the  difficult  exegetical  and 
speculative  task  of  so  thinking  and  describing  the 
destiny  of  the  morally  evil  as  to  do  no  violence  to 
thought,  to  tear  away  the  figurative  mask,  and  leave 
the  naked  truth,  reconciling  it  with  our  philosophy  if 
we  can,  or,  if  we  cannot,  bounding  it  rightly  as  an 
insoluble  mystery. 

That  this  seeming  antinomy  will  remain  unresolved 
during  the  entire  militant  period,  we  may  hold  and 
reconcile  ourselves  to  on  other  grounds.  The  solution 
of  this  problem  of  the  destiny  of  moral  evil  could  only 
come  from  the  disappearance  entire  of  the  mystery  of 
its  origin  and  nature  ;  and  were  this  granted,  or  to  be 
attained  at  the  present  point  of  human  development, 
it  would  so  lighten  the  task  of  faith  as  to  deprive  it  of 
all  virtue.  Insight  into  this  would  be  no  boon  to  man 
as  a  moral  being.  His  obedience  thenceforth  would 
be  compelled  and  slavish,  and  could  not  penetrate  to 
the  roots  of  character.  Faith  could  have  no  discipline, 
and  the  soul  acquire  no  spiritual  strength,  no  fibre  that 
should  be  adamantine.  Man  could  hardly  be  looked 
upon,  then,  as  a  self-determining  being.  His  whole 
task  hitherto  of  holding  to  the  Divine  hand  while 
wandering  in  the  darkness  would  have  been  needless. 
For  such  reasons  we  cannot  hope  to  have  this  mys- 
tery explained  during  the  period  of  militancy,  nor 
until  the  trials  of  the  last  earthly  generation  are  over. 

It  seems  likely,  if  not  certain,  that  the  practical  re- 
sult of  allowing  the  belief  of  a  universal  restoration  to 
take  possession  of  the  common  mind,  by  removing  all 
grounds  for  holding  the  alternative  notion,  would  be 


THE  DESTINY  OF  THE  MORALLY  EVIL.     345 

to  weaken  in  it  the  sense  of  the  exceeding  sinfulness 
and  perilousness  of  sin.  If  evil  is  explained,  as  it 
must  be  in  this  scheme,  as  something  accidental,  or 
transitional,  and  sure  in  some  way  to  disappear 
through  the  Divine  efforts,  the  motive  for  thrusting 
selfishness  out  of  the  soul  for  one's  self  is  weakened. 
That  God  will  take  heed  of  it,  and  wring  it  out  of  the 
soul  by  disciplinary  suffering  is  indeed  true  ;  but  self- 
effort,  as  before  said,  alone  can  accomplish  the  re- 
quired spiritual  strength  ;  and  any  way  of  thinking  by 
which  self-indulg-ence  is  condoned  and  moral  effort 
sapped  is  liable  to  suspicion.  For  those  who  readily 
abandon  themselves  to  altruistic  instincts,  this  notion 
and  this  hope  may  not  be  detrimental ;  but  for  those 
who  are  assaulted  and  carried  away  by  selfish,  sensual, 
cruel,  or  ambitious  impulses,  this  notion  affords  a  con- 
venient excuse  for  allowing  them  to  have  their  way 
for  the  time,  and  relegating  the  work  of  their  extirpa- 
tion to  the  Divine  providential  treatment  alone.  As 
in  the  case  of  a  doctrine  of  Purgatory  too  crass,  the 
effect  is  to  lower  the  aim  of  religious  attainment  and 
to  weaken  the  moral  stimulus. 

Yet,  as  regards  this,  the  Christian  Church  has  used 
much  caution  ;  and  while  acting  upon  the  scheme  of 
bringing  out  the  election  solely,  has  restrained  itself, 
for  the  most  part,  in  dogmatizing  as  to  the  extent  of 
the  Divine  power,  and  fettering  itself  with  difficul- 
ties that  may  hereafter  appear.  The  Christian  Scrip- 
tures, and  the  Church,  then  leave  us  the  task  of 
thinking  upon  the  destiny  of  the  morally  evil  after 
death,  and  are  not  without  aid  to  us  in  the  endeavor. 

For  the  philosophic  speculator  the  scheme  of  a 
universal    restoration   is  fettered   by  difficulties  still 


346  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

greater  than  for  the  exegete.  The  latter  may  find 
some  slight  basis  for  his  hope,  and  think  that  time  will 
make  it  more  firm.  The  former  can  find  none  for  it 
in  his  thought,  except  by  revising  his  ethic,  explaining 
evil  away  as  moral,  making  it  a  necessity,  or  a  form 
of  the  good,  and  thus  have  to  meet  a  polemic  more 
fundamental.  But  if,  assuming  the  absoluteness  of 
moral  distinctions,  human  freedom  and  responsibility, 
acknowledging  the  fact  of  sin  and  its  spiritual  charac- 
ter, availing  itself  of  all  scientific  knowledge  as  to  the 
working  of  the  principle  of  heredity,  the  philosophic 
mind  has  arrived  thus  far  securely,  without  prejudice 
or  fear  as  to  results, — it  can  find  for  its  thought  no 
method  by  which  one  who  commits  himself  to  the 
principle  of  evil,  and  adheres  to  it  through  life,  and 
passes  without  moral  change  out  of  the  present  set  of 
relations  to  the  universe,  can  thereafter  be  restored 
and  regenerated.  The  utmost  that  it  can  do  is  to 
make  us  doubt  the  accuracy  and  show  the  possibility 
of  ultimate  reversal  of  our  judgments  of  character  here 
on  earth.  Here  indeed  is  a  legitimate  field  for 
cautious  thinking,  into  which  venturing  we  may  find 
reason  to  form  adverse  judgments  with  less  dogmatic 
confidence,  and  thus  in  our  estimation  to  reduce  the 
number  of  those  who  seem  committed  to  the  principle 
of  evil.  To  such  a  leaning  of  his  thought  the  loving 
Christian  readily  commits  himself,  has  committed 
himself  more  and  more  readily,  and  will  hereafter 
grow  more  and  more  into  the  habit  of  merciful  judg- 
ments. The  savagery  of  Christian  estimates  of  the 
apparently  disobedient  is  slowly  yet  really  abating, 
and  that  on  valid  grounds.  The  conditions  for  abso- 
lute responsibility  are  yet  to  be  worked  out  by  science 


THE  DESTINY  OF  THE  MORALLY  EVIL.     347 

and  philosophy  ;  and  though  we  may  never  be  able  to 
abstract  the  purely  spiritual  quality  from  physiological 
conditions  and  compelled  action,  we  have  already 
learned  to  hold  in  reserve  much  adverse  human 
judgment ;  and  while  still  maintaining  that  the 
morally  evil  do  exist,  and  must  have  their  own  des- 
tiny, find  ourselves  willing  to  acknowledge  that  the 
number  of  such  is  far  less  than  it  seems.  But  while 
the  exception  remains,  the  problem  still  remains  with 
its  difficulty  unabated.  History  shows  us  facts  which 
indicate  the  existence  of  the  persistently  evil  so  mark- 
edly, that  it  seems  almost  affectation  to  express  a 
doubt.  Jesus  Christ  himself,  in  declaring  the  possi- 
bility of  the  existence  of  such,  in  what  He  says  as  to 
the  sin  against  the  Holy  Spirit,  may  be  thought  to 
assume  the  actuality  of  the  same. 

Admitting  then  as  a  fact,  the  existence  of  the 
persistently  evil  here  on  earth  (and  if  it  were  not  for 
this  question  of  their  destiny  no  one  would  doubt  it), 
speculative  thought,  proceeding  from  the  basis  before 
given,  can  show  us  no  method  by  which  they  can  be 
recovered  hereafter.  Ex  hypothese,  the  utmost  moral 
force  has  been  tried  upon  them,  and  in  vain.  If  they 
have  not  been  carried  away  in  the  flood  of  brain 
action,  but  are  still  responsible,  they  would  seem  to 
have  been  guilty  of  an  absolute  reversal  of  the  pro- 
foundest  predispositions  of  their  being,  and  to  have 
immolated  their  ideal  selves.  The  will  has  become, 
through  earthly  life,  stronger  in  its  bias.  The  innate 
egoistic  proclivities  have  purified  themselves  of  all 
altruistic  instincts  and  tendencies,  and  concentred 
themselves  upon  the  narrow  point  of  selfish  isolation. 
Whence  is  to  come  the  spiritual   force  which  is  to 


348  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

reverse  the  movement  ?  If  the  knowledge  of  God's 
love  in  Christ  has  been  uninfluential ;  or  if  it  has  been 
repudiated,  not  on  evidential  or  philosophic  grounds, 
but  from  moral  perversity  merely  ;  if  holiness  has  lost 
all  beauty,  and  sacrifice  all  attractiveness ;  if  the  ideal 
destiny  of  the  human  race,  which  legitimates  the 
moral  distinctions  and  constitutes  the  sense  of  respon- 
sibility, has  been  obliterated  from  the  conscious- 
ness,— what  mental  enlightenment  hereafter,  or  what 
possible  environment  can  afford  the  conditions  for  a 
reversal  of  its  spiritual  quality  ?  Whence  is  the  good 
will  to  come  which  is  to  blossom  out  into  the  altruistic 
tendencies  which  have  been  extirpated  ?  Here  is 
indeed  a  task  for  speculation,  beside  which  all  other 
tasks  dwindle  in  difficulty.  Still  indeed  the  hope  for 
such  possibility  may  remain,  but  philosophy  deals  not 
with  hopes,  which  are  but  subjective  longings,  and  are 
in  themselves  ephemeral  and  without  moral  quality. 
That  the  evil  soul  removed  from  the  sphere  of  activity 
which  intensified  its  evil  character  may  retire  upon 
itself  for  self-scrutiny  after  death,  is  indeed  possible 
and  probable.  That  it  can  recognize  its  moral 
decision  and  consequent  spiritual  quality  as  a  mistake 
is  not  probable,  for  so  to  do  would  imply  that  the 
Sfood  had  still  attractiveness,  which  would  be  a  nucleus 
upon  which  Divine  influence  might  work.  Repentance 
would  then  be  possible,  and  if  repentance,  then  ulti- 
mate recovery.  Indeed  those  who  hold  that  the  evil 
ones  hereafter  repent  of  their  misdeeds  make  thereby 
their  recovery  thinkable  and  possible,  and  show  that 
their  conception  of  evil  is  but  superficial.  Such  indeed 
think  a  second  probation  after  death,  and  deprive  the 
present  life  of  its  significance.     The  very  idea  of  evil 


THE  DESTINY  OF  THE  MORALLY  EVIL.     349 

as  a  spiritual  quality  is  that  the  good  has  lost  all 
attractiveness ;  and  if  there  is  no  sphere  of  activity, 
there  are  no  conditions  for  the  revival  or  recreation 
of  the  altruistic  tendencies  which  have  undergone 
extinguishment.  Any  tortures  of  the  soul  which 
could  come  from  the  sense  of  lost  opportunities  are 
not  thinkable.  Such  suppositions  carry  us  too  far, 
and  in  leaving  us  to  imagine  a  soul,  still  longing  for 
the  good  and  therefore  having  the  possibilities  of 
good  within  it,  discarded,  rejected,  or  neglected  by 
God,  oblige  us  to  re-think  the  very  notion  of  God  out 
of  which  alone  our  conception  of  any  Divine  scheme  for 
human  recovery  can  legitimately  come.  No,  the  hope- 
lessly evil  are  absolutely  such,  and  souls  which  are  not 
absolutely  evil,  cannot  be  held  as  hopelessly  such. 
This  too  opens  for  us  a  pathway  by  which  we  may 
legitimately  think  that  the  number  of  the  hopelessly 
evil  is  less  than  seems ;  that  we  are  mistaken  often  in 
thinking  that  moral  probation  here  on  earth  has 
resulted  in  the  wrong  choice  ;  that  what  seems  such 
is  not  a  declination  of  the  principle  of  good,  but  a 
mistake  in  judging  of  the  activity  which  that  principle 
requires ;  that  many  a  soul  longs  to  love,  and  reaches 
out  towards  God,  yet  in  the  darkness  lays  hold  upon 
something  else,  some  false  idea  of  him,  and  some 
substitute  for  him  that  human  ingenuity  has  contrived, 
or  its  own  blindness  has  not  enabled  it  to  detect  or 
avoid. 

But  all  this  does  not  lessen  the  difficulty.  The 
problem  still  remains  :  assuming  the  existence  of  the 
persistently  evil  ones,  which  we  cannot  find  sufficient 
reason  for  denying,  what  is  their  destiny  ?  Here  now 
speculation  gropes   in   almost   total   darkness.     The 


350  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

problem,  to  be  soluble  in  part,  must  be  soluble  as  a 
whole  ;  and  till  we  can  think  satisfactorily  the  origin 
we  cannot  think  conclusively  the  end.  The  language 
of  the  New  Testament  is  ordinarily  and  rightly 
regarded  as  figurative,  when  dealing  with  this  topic. 
Its  purpose  seems  to  be  to  convince  men  of  the  dread- 
ful consequences  of  persistent  sin,  of  the  misery  which 
comes  in  its  train,  of  the  period  of  anguish  which  it 
must  pass  through.  All  this  is  veiled  in  figures  more 
or  less  crass  and  physical.  Much  of  this  language 
may  be  thought  to  apply  to  the  characteristics  of  the 
intermediate  state, — to  the  anguish  figured  to  come 
from  the  fading  away  of  the  earthly  sphere  and  its 
possibilities  of  activity  and  gratification, — the  inward 
gnawing,  or  combustion,  that  must  come  when  the 
environment  has  deprived  the  soul  of  all,  even  nega- 
tive activity,  when  its  hostility  must  cease,  and  the 
very  satisfaction  which  evil  found  in  itself  as  a 
negative,  opposing  principle  be  no  longer  possible. 
The  Scriptures  content  themselves  with  this  general 
and  figurative  language,  and  decline  to  follow  the 
problem  farther.  And  this  may  be  a  warning  to  us 
not  to  follow  it  farther.  But  speculation  does  and 
will,  and  hence  the  need  to  show  how  far  it  may  with 
safety  and  without  contradiction  go.  The  Scriptures 
leave  these  souls  in  the  condition  thus  obscurely 
described,  and  hint  not  of  any  change  or  progress  ; 
and  yet  since  these  souls  exist  in  time  there  must  be 
change  and  progress.  The  Scriptures  speak  of  an 
environment,  for  if  the  evil  ones  are  raised,  we  have 
to  think  their  reinstatement  in  their  composite  nature, 
and  in  some  relation  still,  through  this,  to  the  universe. 
All   this  increases  the  difficulty,   and  obliges  us  to 


THE  DESTINY  OF  THE  MORALLY  EVIL.     351 

recall  the  doctrine  of  the  liberation  of  the  xriffiS;  and 
gives  some  reason  to  think  it  merely  a  change  in  the 
subjective  relation  of  the  morally  perfected  souls  to- 
wards it ;  or  if  admitting  of  structural  changes,  so  far 
as  the  relation  of  the  perfected  ones  requires,  yet  still 
leaving  possible  a  relation  to  it  of  the  spiritually  evil, 
which  too,  in  its  way,  must  be  susceptible  of  change 
and  progress. 

We  do  not  decline  to  descend  into  these  dark 
depths,  yet  we  do  it  with  no  secure  confidence,  and 
shall  tread  cautiously,  in  order  to  correct  many 
speculations  upon  this  matter,  very  rife  in  our  days, 
which  strike  us  as  crude,  unfounded,  superficial,  or 
untenable. 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

PURE      EVIL,      IF      POSSIBLE,      WHAT      ITS      DESTINY,      AS 
SPECULATIVELY    THOUGHT. 

The  idea  of  evil  in  general  can  be  most  correctly 
and  clearly  apprehended  by  contrasting  it  with  the 
idea  of  the  good,  and  regarding  it  as  its  absolute  con- 
tradiction, or  negative  pole.  Not  that  it  is  a  mere 
defect  or  a  pure  negation,  for  while  it  is  a  complex  and 
admits  of  relations,  nevertheless  its  chief  element, 
which  is  primary  and  causal,  and  from  which  physical 
evil  springs,  or  which  it  accompanies,  is  moral  evil,  and 
this  is  a  positive  movement  of  will  and  energy  in  one 
direction,  as  moral  good  is  a  positive  movement  in  the 
other.  Were  there  no  freedom  to  determine  the  end 
of  activity,  and  no  responsibility,  there  could  be  no 
moral  evil,  and  what  is  now  called  physical  evil  would 
be  a  part  of  the  flow  of  necessity,  of  which  the  move- 
ments of  conscious  creatures  would  be  a  mere 
element,  and  all  comprised  in  the  same  nexus.  But 
moral  evil  belongs  only  to  concretes,  and  is  a  quality 
of  self-conscious  souls,  and  hence,  as  a  quality  or  ten- 
dency of  the  same,  is  as  positive  as  the  quality  of 
good,  and  expressive  as  the  other  of  a  certain  relation. 
Whether  as  such  a  quality  of  concretes  it  has  any 
character  of  absolute  permanence  is  indeed  a  mooted 
question.  A  posteriori  we  can  find  no  sufncent  war- 
rant to  deny  it.  The  a  priori  objection  to  so  thinking, 

352 


PURE  EVIL.  353 

which  has  great  force  for  the  philosophic  mind,  is  that 
so  to  think  lands  us  in  an  eternal  dualism.  But  the 
human  mind  has  found  no  way  to  escape,  or  successfully 
think  away,  this  dualism.  To  weaken,  or  mitigate,  or 
simplify  it  is  the  intent  of  the  present  disquisition.  In 
all  philosophic  thought  whatever,  there  is  one  weak 
spot,  where  light  fails,  and  faith  must  bridge  the 
hiatus  ;  and  we  contend  that  it  is  located  precisely  here 
and  nowhere  else  ;  and  that  the  residuum  of  darkness, 
in  this  scheme,  may  be  pushed  back  to  total  darkness  ; 
while  in  every  other  scheme  there  is  a  twilight  region 
between,  in  which  the  mind  wanders  bewilderingly. 

But,  as  before  said,  we  shall  understand  what  can  be 
understood  of  evil  by  regarding  it  as,  in  its  pure  form, 
the  absolute  opposite  of  the  good.  The  good  too  is 
a  complex  idea,  and  contains  moral  good  as  its  chief 
element,  and  hence  belongs  primarily  and  properly 
only  to  concretes, — to  the  free  self-consciousness  of 
such.  Its  fundamental  idea  or  definition  is  Love. 
This  we  have  shown  on  a  priori  grounds  is  the  essen- 
tial Divine  character,  and  the  Christian  revelations 
confirm  the  statement.  This  alone  makes  the  God- 
head apprehensible  as  meeting  our  highest  conception. 
This  alone  meets  the  requirement  of  the  human  heart. 
Love  as  existing  in  the  First  Principle  requires  the 
conditions  for  reciprocity,  and  that  each  hypostasis  of 
the  Godhead  has  his  all-sufficient  object,  and  the  Tri- 
unity  is  constituted  by  this  personal  tie.  It  is  not  a 
mere  Tryad,  for  each  hypostasis  presupposes  the  other 
for  the  completeness  of  its  own  definition,  and  as 
there  is  an  absolute  accord,  there  is  but  one  will,  and 
all  activity  beyond  itself  is  threefold  yet  in  absolute 
harmony.     The  consciousness  is  one,  yet  several,  and 

Vol.  II. 


354  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

Love  is  the  key  by  which  to  think  it,  though  it  defies 
imagination.  There  is  and  can  be  nothing  simpler 
than  this,  and  all  being  is  not  but  as  it  exists.  The 
environment  to  this  Trinity  is  the  Divine  Glory  in  its 
pure  form  (which  too  we  think  but  cannot  imagine), 
by  means  of  which  the  Divine  ideas,  whose  fountain 
is  exhaustless,  may  be  realized.  This  Divine  Glory 
is  determined  and  becomes  the  universe  by  the  energy 
and  activity  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  accomplishing  the 
thought  supplied  by  the  Logos ;  and  the  Absolute 
Fount  of  Being,  discoverable  only  as  in  thought  it 
breaks  into  the  relations  of  Son  and  Spirit,  is  the 
Eternal  Father,  to  whom  all  spiritual  and  physical 
relations  are  primarily  or  ultimately  referable.  This 
Godhead  in  its  immanent  relations,  which  Love  is  the 
only  word  that  can  describe,  is  the  Absolute  Good, 
and  is  thus  constituted,  we  might  say,  of  eternal  neces- 
sity, had  that  word  any  meaning  other  than  that  Love 
is  self-necessitated.  To  our  human  thought  Love  is 
freedom,  and  its  perfection  necessity.  We  see  and 
know  that  we  rightly  think  it  as  freedom  from  the 
possibility  and  experience  of  its  opposite,  and  if  that 
possibility  should  disappear,  it  would  still  be  freedom 
in  its  highest  or  pure  form,  or  spontaneity.  Any 
necessity  other  than  this  perfection  of  freedom  must 
mean  being  limited  by  something  without,  and  that 
not  an  abstraction,  (for  abstractions  have  no  force,) 
but  must  exist  in  a  concrete,  and  thus  we  have  the 
dualism  which  we  have  already  characterized  and 
criticised  as  Semi-Pantheism.  The  highest  form  of 
freedom,  even  for  our  human  thought,  is  self-necessi- 
tation,  consistency  with  itself,  in  which  no  contradic- 
tion    is     possible,     and     Love     is     only     another 


PURE  EVIL.  355 

name  for  this.  But  Love,  from  its  very  defi- 
nition and  from  the  necessity  of  its  freedom, 
is  also  activity,  and  seeks  to  extend  itself,  and  multiply 
its  objects,  and  enrich  itself  by  enriching  its  objects 
and  receiving  their  love  in  return  ;  and  hence  we  have 
the  created  universe,  which  sparkles  with  reflections 
or  reproductions  of  the  Divine  self-consciousness. 
Hence  no  solitary  reflection  of  the  same  meets 
the  requirements  of  the  idea,  and  is  thinkable  or 
possible,  for  thus  there  would  be  no  object  upon 
which  to  exercise  love,  and  no  field  for  activity  and 
reciprocation.  Hence  created  free  spirits  exist  only  as 
souls,  as  more  than  particulars  and  individuals,  and 
with  environment  and  media  for  inter-communica- 
tion ;  and  we  have  the  human  race,  whose  idea  is 
a  commonwealth,  realizing  freely  and  reflecting  fully 
the  Divine  immanent  harmony.  This  then  is  the  idea 
of  reflected  or  created  good,  an  organism,  articulated, 
whose  members  are  bound  together  by  the  ethical  tie, 
and  whose  interests  are  identical,  and  whose  conscious- 
ness is  one,  yet  several.  As  issuing  from  the  Divine 
Love,  its  highest  characteristic  is  responsive  love,  and 
hence  the  ethical  tie  between  its  members  merges  into 
the  tie  between  it  and  God,  into  the  religious  tie ;  and 
from  this  source  the  return  again  is  exhaustless,  and 
issues  in  the  fullest  development  and  completest  bless- 
edness for  its  object.  To  this  moral  element  of  its 
complex  being,  elevated  into  the  religious  element,  all 
other  constituents  of  complex  and  concrete  being  are 
or  become  correspondent ;  and  hence  its  physical  con- 
stitution and  relation  to  any  environment  will  offer  no 
impediment  to  the  realization  of  its  thoughts  and  its 
longings,  but  offer  itself  readily  to  enrich  its  being  and 


356  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

its  bliss.  To  it  likewise  the  way  is  open  to  pierce  the 
recesses  of  the  Divine  thoughts,  and  as  these  are 
inexhaustible,  it  may  grow  richer  and  fuller  to  all 
eternity. 

This  then  is  the  idea  of  the  created  good,  a  reflec- 
tion and  an  extension  of  the  Absolute  Good.  For  the 
free  soul  to  set  this  as  its  end,  more  or  less  clearly  seen 
and  more  or  less  intelligently  followed,  is  to  be  morally 
good.  And  of  this  good,  moral  evil  is  the  diametri- 
cal contradiction,  in  its  moral  quality,  and  in  its  rela- 
tion to  its  environment.  It  is,  morally,  the  with- 
drawal from  this  harmony,  and  the  setting  up  of  an 
independent  end.  Hence  its  idea  is  that  of  spiritual 
isolation,  the  refusal  to  find  its  perfection,  and  seek 
its  satisfaction  from  its  ideal  relation  to  the  totality, 
to  the  commonwealth, — the  plunging  one's  self  out  of 
the  current  of  its  native  predispositions, — the  effort 
after  supremacy,  from  which  it  seeks  to  disentangle 
all  fetters.  The  soul  thus  diverging,  though  revoca- 
ble still,  is  moving  towards  irrevocability.  It  uses 
for  a  time,  or  for  all  time,  whatever  is  external  to 
minister  to  its  self-formed  designs.  It  is  blind,  in- 
deed, in  not  seeing  that  the  very  material  out  of 
which  it  forms  its  ideals  it  owes  to  the  Divine 
hand,  and  hence  that  the  material  for  and  the  field 
of  its  activity  can  have  no  permanence.  But  while  it 
is  permitted  it  makes  use  of  it  for  its  transitory  enjoy- 
ment, seeks  to  repress  its  altruistic  instincts,  careless 
or  blind  as  to  the  result.  It  rids  itself  of  the  uneasy 
sense  of  responsibility  by  weaving  for  itself  a  cloud  of 
mental  delusion.  It  refuses  to  yield  to  the  inherited 
propensities  to  good,  till  they  become  extinct, — extin- 
guishes by  constant  shunning  any  fear  it  may  have 


PURE  EVIL.  357 

of  retribution  hereafter,  and  sucks  what  enjoyment  it 
can  out  of  life  while  it  lasts. 

We  are  not  here,  it  must  be  apparent,  describing 
any  particular  instance,  or  concrete  illustration,  but 
what  the  idea  of  evil  is,  and  what  would  be  the  career 
of  the  self-conscious  soul  were  it  purely  evil,  or  going 
on  to  be  such.  Such  a  career  may  be  regarded  as 
possible,  on  the  grounds  before  given.  But  the  idea 
of  absolute  evil  is  not  yet  made  real,  for  though  the 
moral  quality  be  there,  the  strain  after  pure  selfish- 
ness or  isolation,  the  other  and  correspondent  ele- 
ments of  evil  regarded  as  absolute,  are  still  wanting. 
Nature  still  nourishes,  and  blesses,  and  furnishes  the 
food  for  enjoyment.  This  soul  cannot  repress  its 
physical  instincts,  or  psychical  sympathies  entirely, 
though  it  may  seek  to  do  this,  when  they  are  in 
the  way  of  its  main  design.  Physical  needs,  and 
social  life  still  solicit  it  to  abandon  its  headlong 
career,  and  return  ;  and  no  human  brother,  at  any 
point  of  the  earthly  career  of  another  soul,  has  the 
right  to  say  that  it  is  impossible  that  it  should  return. 
What  it  seeks  to  accomplish,  however,  is  its  own  starry 
aloofness,  either  reluctant  to  be  under  obligation  to 
any  other  soul,  or  intending,  if  it  finds  it  convenient 
for  its  purpose,  to  disregard  all  reciprocal  good-will. 
It  cannot  withdraw  itself  from  the  domain  of  natural 
laws,  though  it  may  become  measurably  independent 
of  social  laws.  It  must  still  feel  and  fret  under  the 
sense  of  its  dependence,  and  the  limitations  Divine 
providence  sets  it. 

Whether  any  human  soul  succeeds  in  becoming 
thus  purely  and  irrevocably  evil  here  on  earth,  is  a 
question  we  can  only  abstractly  and  never  concretely 


358  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

answer ;  but  the  movement  of  such  may  be  thought 
to  be  unquestionably  in  this  direction  ;  and  so  far  as 
we  can  see,  this  movement,  in  many  cases,  seems  to 
be  unarrested.  Our  enquiry  is  not  whether  or  how, 
if  there  is  any  spark  of  good  left,  it  can  be  fanned 
into  a  blaze,  and  thus  recovery  be  accomplished  ;  but 
what,  the  tendency  being  thus  set  against  the  univer- 
sal harmony,  and  the  effort  after  spiritual  isolation 
being  incessant  and  growing  stronger,  must  be  the 
condition  of  such  a  soul  when  removed  from  the 
earthly  environment  and  introduced  into  the  new  set 
of  relations  alone  possible  after  death.  The  presence 
of  good  instincts  and  tendencies  it  owes  to  the  earthly 
environment.  These,  by  the  constitution  of  its  compo- 
site nature,  continue  to  solicit  it ;  and  thus  nature 
herself,  even  though  regarded  as  fallen  and  degraded, 
struggles  against  the  existence  of  pure  moral  evil,  and 
to  the  last  draws  in  the  opposite  direction.  But  when 
the  earthly  environment  passes,  then  what  is  the 
case  ?  We  could  speak  more  confidently  did  we 
know  what  the  future  environment  was  to  be.  We 
have  seen,  however,  that  we  must  think  it  as  fur- 
nishing no  field  for  physical  activity  or  external 
change.  In  that  realm  the  soul  is  thrown  back  upon 
itself.  Its  enjoyment,  if  any,  must  come  from  its 
relation  to  God,  and  to  other  souls,  and  to  the  envi- 
ronment ;  and  if  love  describes  this  relation,  it  can 
minister  and  be  ministered  unto  through  whatever 
refined  media  the  environment  supplies,  and  thus  it 
can  intensify  itself,  and  have  its  consciousness  diversi- 
fied and  enriched.  But  the  evil  soul,  being  ex  hypo- 
these  without  this  love,  must  prey  upon  itself. 
Whatever   in    the  outlying  field   of   activity  in   the 


PURE  EVIL.  359 

earthly  life  made  evil  pleasant  is  gone.  It  has  suc- 
ceeded in  its  quest  of  spiritual  isolation,  has  become 
morally  independent,  but  finds  itself  powerless  and 
resourceless.  The  conditions  for  any  expansion  of 
being  are  not  there.  It  cannot  love  other  souls  like 
itself,  since  both  are  alike  unlovely,  and  the  tendencies 
of  love,  which  are  outward,  have  been  introverted  and 
extirpated. 

Whether  there  be  any  external  environment  hostile, 
and  imparted  torment  ab  extra,  may  be  questioned, 
although  the  Scripture  language,  like  all  other  lan- 
guage addressed  to  human  understanding  and  imagi- 
nation, and  not  to  the  abstract  thinking  faculty,  must 
necessarily  make  use  of  figurative  expressions  to 
make  itself  understood,  and  thus  so  far  countenances 
the  notion  that  there  is  such.  But  this  notion,  literally 
understood,  will  not  bear  the  scrutiny  of  thought ;  for 
thereby  we  have  to  re-think  the  Divine  idea,  and  regard 
it  as  something  other  than  that  which  has  been  the  basis 
of  all  our  conclusions  hitherto.  It  supposes  God  to  be 
vindictive,  and  to  impart  torment  when  it  is  needless. 
Moreover,  it  is  out  of  all  analogy.  All  punishment 
here  on  earth  is  indirectly  remedial,  and  is  intended 
either  to  arrest  the  the  downward  path  to  evil,  or  to 
ward  off  its  outbreaks  of  mischief.  There  is  nothing 
gained  for  thought,  but  a  subtle  contradiction  intro- 
duced, by  regarding  God  as  vindictive.  It  impairs  the 
idea  of  Love  as  supreme  and  pure,  and  supposes  it 
to  be  limited  by  some  interior  principle  higher  than 
itself.  It  is  entirely  sufficient  for  our  thought  to 
regard  the  evil  soul  as  left  to  itself,  to  the  condition 
it  has  voluntarily  chosen.  God  respects  its  freedom 
still,  though  that  freedom  has  likewise  become  a 
necessity  at  the  opposite  pole. 


360  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

Thus  it  appears,  that  living  only  within  itself,  and 
dwelling  only  upon  itself,  there  are  no  conditions  for 
expansive  growth,  but  only  for  gradual  impoverish- 
ment. Its  experience  is  no  more  an  objective  activity, 
but  a  subjective  tumult.  Imagination  may  do  little 
here  :  but  it  may  represent  in  some  degree  the  weari- 
ness that  must  come  from  this  aimless  internal  strife, 
and  even  present  to  itself  a  condition  in  which  the 
very  mental  struggles  themselves  must  abate.  Thus 
we  have  a  perpetual  shrinking  or  dwarfing  of  being. 
It  is  becoming  narrower  and  narrower,  fading  to  the 
infinitely  little,  yet  never  reaching  extinguishment. 
Imagination  can  no  more  follow  this  movement  tow- 
ards the  minute  and  poor  than  it  can  towards  the 
infinitely  great  and  interminably  rich.  We  have  to  be 
content  here  with  the  naked  thought,  about  which 
there  is  precisely  the  same  inexplicability  and  defiance 
to  imagination  that  there  is  about  the  infinite  divisi- 
bility of  matter.  We  cannot  think,  any  more  than  we 
can  imagine,  utter  extinguishment,  any  more  than  we 
can  think  the  disappearance  into  nonentity  of  the 
ultimate  particles  of  matter.  And,  as  before  expli- 
cated, to  think  annihilation  is  impossible  because  it  is 
contradictory,  since  it  destroys  the  fundamental  idea 
of  the  soul  as  morally  responsible.  Thought  stops 
when  it  has  reduced  the  consciousness  of  the  purely 
evil  one  to  its  rudimental  form.  Here  indeed  is 
infinite  loss,  and  there  is  nothing  whatever  gained  for 
thought  by  dwelling  upon  whatever  agony  may  strew 
the  pathway. 

In  this  way  the  dualism  is  mitigated,  but  it  does 
not  entirely  disappear,  and  alas  !  by  no  ingenuity  of 
thought  can  we  make  it  disappear.     We  are  left  with 


PURE  EVIL.  361 

a  longing  still  that  something  may  revive  our  hope  of 
escape  from  this  darkness,  though  we  see  no  pathway 
to  follow.  This  is  the  impassable  limit  for  human 
thought,  in  the  present  stadium  of  our  existence. 
While  this  endeavor  to  penetrate  the  dimness  reaches 
still  only  the  absolute  dark,  yet  it  is  claimed  that  this 
darkness  is  the  least  terrifying,  though  to  be  rid  of  all 
terror  is  impossible.  Any  scheme  of  thought  which 
professes  to  rid  us  of  it  does  not  succeed.  It  wanders 
only  in  a  circle,  and  comes  round  at  length  to  the  very 
darkness  it  seeks  to  avoid.  But,  as  was  said  before, 
we  can  assert  this  fate  of  no  individual  human  soul ; 
but  must  avow  its  possibility,  and  can  see  no  way  to 
deny  its  actuality  ;  and  the  number  of  such  must  ever 
be  indeterminate  and  will  fluctuate  in  our  regard,  ac- 
cording to  the  phases  of  our  feeling.  This  way  of 
thinking  always  issues  in  a  kind  of  mental  despair ; 
and  as  displaying  the  insufficiency  of  our  faculties  to 
fill  up  every  hiatus  in  a  seemingly  harmonious  whole 
of  knowledge,  is  more  humbling  than  any  other  men- 
tal attitude.  To  hold,  as  a  mental  relief,  in  the  im- 
agination some  picture  of  a  harmonized  universe, 
brought  about  by  Divine  Omnipotence,  from  which 
all  evil  shall  have  disappeared,  is  simply  shutting  the 
vision  temporarily  to  the  difficulties  to  which  the  mind 
must  needs  return.  For  if  this  sin  and  misery  can 
thus  be  swept  away  by  violence,  it  has  been  needless, 
is  surplusage  and  waste,  and  has  served  no  purpose 
and  had  no  meaning.  All  things  become  morally 
indifferent.  If  sin  and  misery,  brought  in  by  moral 
defect,  can  only  be  overcome  by  moral  forces,  the 
present  ones  must  be  shown  to  be  adequate,  or  new 
ones  must  come  out  of  the  Divine  depths  ;  and  we 


362  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

have  no  data  from  which  to  think  the  possibility  of 
such :  for  the  Divine  Love  has  already  taken  its 
highest  conceivable  form.  If,  again,  evil  has  existed 
only  as  a  foil  for  the  good,  then  its  definition  as  that 
which — God  being  what  He  is,  and  man  what  he  is — 
ought  not  to  be  disappears  :  and  its  true  definition  is 
what  ought  to  be.  And  one  cannot  be  asked  to  for- 
sake sin,  except  as  it  may  possibly  prove  to  be  impru- 
dent. And  so  we  pass  from  one  cloud  to  another, 
none  with  power  to  buoy  us  up.  But  all  despair  is 
never  pure,  but  has  an  inner  element  of  hope  ;  and 
hope  and  despair  are  feelings  and  not  thoughts, 
rooted  in  the  depths  of  being  which  are  unknown  ; 
and  therefore  no  thought  whatever  can  ever  utterly 
extinguish  them.  In  these  depths  music  only  wan- 
ders, and  endeavors  to  express  what  words  cannot 
utter. 

But  let  us  turn  our  thoughts  once  more,  before  we 
leave  our  undertaking,  and  dwell  in  a  final  regard 
upon  the  possible  escape  from  this  darkness :  for 
God,  while  in  one  direction  He  has  shut  us  in  by  an 
adamantine  wall,  in  the  other  opens  an  avenue  of 
light  which  conducts  us  to  the  limitless  skies. 


CHAPTER    XXX. 

THE    PERSONAL     RELATION. 

It  is  apparent  by  this  time  that  the  thought  which 
penetrates  and  unifies  this  whole  treatise,  and  expli- 
cates its  meaning  in  every  part,  is  a  philosophy  of  the 
universe  ;  and  means  that  it  is  so  framed  essentially, 
eternally,  and  immutably  that  its  law  can  be  discov- 
ered. This  is  that  Love  is  first  and  highest ;  that  all 
limitations  of  existence,  of  power,  and  knowledge 
come  from  its  defect  ;  that  in  its  perfection  it  is 
necessarily  followed  by  the  withdrawal  of  all  limita- 
tions of  these  ;  and  that  not  arbitrarily,  and  as  though 
any  thing  else  were  thinkable  and  feasible  ;  that  thus 
is  revealed  the  ideal  constitution  of  the  universe  : 
which  is  a  reflection  of  the  Godhead  itself  in  its  im- 
manent relations.  In  the  history  of  Jesus  Christ  we 
have  a  concrete  illustration  of  this  eternal  constitu- 
tion. Here  the  Divine  Love  becomes  appreciable  by 
the  creature,  by  the  self-limitation  of  the  loving  One, 
by  its  taking  the  form  of  sacrifice.  It  thus  accom- 
plishes and  transmutes  itself  into  the  highest  respon- 
sive love  :  and  in  the  depths  of  love  God  and  man 
meet,  and  become  spiritually  one.  As  the  necessary 
result  of  this  all  limitation  of  power  and  knowledge 
passes.  Thus  there  is  no  new  mystery  in  the  atoning 
work  of  Christ :  but  only  the  extension  of  the  mys- 
tery of  the  Incarnation  itself.    As  the  triumph  of  Love 

363 


364  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

followed  by  bodily  glorification  and  the  dispelling  of 
all  mental  clouds,  it  is  of  all  things  the  least  mysteri- 
ous, and  the  most  readily  apprehensible  by  the  human 
mind  and  heart,  as  that  ought  to  be  which  is  presented 
as  the  strongest  impelling  motive.  The  mystery  and 
the  difficulty  consist  in  the  Divine  self-limitation  re- 
quired and  seen  in  the  magna  opera  of  the  Incarnation 
and  the  Death.  These  are  physical  and  metaphysical 
rather  than  moral  and  religious,  and  we  have  already 
said  all  that  we  can  upon  them. 

The  proof  of  this  Philosophy,  which  is  both  Biblical 
and  speculative,  is  that  it  unlocks  the  problems  of  ex- 
istence as  no  other  can,  leaving  but  the  one  dark  hiatus 
for  faith  to  bridge  over  in  the  hope  that  its  eye  will  be 
opened  by  the  successful  passage  of  the  gulf. 

In  order  then  that  the  present  limitation  of  power 
and  knowledge  may  pass  for  any  individual  soul,  the 
complete  realization  of  the  personal  relation  in  Christ 
must  be  reproduced  in  it.  This  is  the  fundamental 
and  distinguishing  idea  of  Christianity,  avowed  and 
made  clear ;  though  indeed  that  the  personal  relation 
must  be  sought  is  the  essential  characteristic  of  all 
religion  whatever.  Christianity  is  based  upon  the 
mental  postulate,  the  implanted  instinct,  and  the 
revealed  illustration,  that  what  is  first  and  highest  in 
all  existence  is  Love  ;  and  Love  is  a  personal  relation. 
However,  the  idea  of  the  Godhead  may  be  analyzed, 
and  elements  for  thought  discovered,  and  a  system  of 
relations  which  is  necessary  and  absolute  and  its  im- 
mutable constitution,  these  elements  are  only  abstrac- 
tions, and  have  no  existence  apart  from  each  other 
and  except  in  their  synthesis,  insomuch  that  neither 
Father,  Son,  nor  Spirit  can  be  thought  as  existing 


THE  PERSONAL  RE  LA  TION.  365 

apart  by  himself.  To  be  existent  for  human  thought 
and  feeling  there  must  be  an  active  or  loving  relation. 
For  mental  use  merely  the  Godhead  is  a  set  of 
abstractions.  It  becomes  concrete  and  living  only  in 
its  activity,  which  on  the  grounds  given  above  is 
taken  as  loving.  As  such  activity  God's  existence 
cannot  possibly  be  denied,  whatever  the  mind  may  do 
with  the  abstract  elements  of  the  idea.  He  is  to  man 
loving,  we  may  say,  in  spite  of  all  mental  dulness  or 
denials.  When  this  is  recognized  as  a  fact,  having 
practical  issues,  then  a  dialectic  becomes  possible  to 
show  how  Love  is  thinkable  within  the  Godhead  itself, 
and  is  its  eternal  characteristic. 

That  the  Providence  which  has  brought  us  into  the 
world  and  set  us  on  our  planet  is  beneficent,  is  man's 
ordinary  feeling.  Normally  nature  ministers  to  enjoy- 
ment, and  when  she  provides  suffering,  and  man  is 
bewildered  and  doubtful  in  consequence,  the  suffering 
still  seems  transient  and*provisional,  and  the  possibility 
of  removal  is  never  lost  from  the  thought.  Suffering 
is  seen,  more  or  less  clearly,  to  come  from  the  viola- 
tion of  nature's  laws,  and  thus  appears  as  a  contradic- 
tion to  the  loving  Providence  which  man  himself  can 
remove.  Or,  it  reaches  him  through  the  principle  of 
heredity,  and  thus  is  necessitated  a  profounder  medita- 
tion by  which  is  reached  the  idea  of  the  organic  unity 
of  the  race,  whence  is  the  vicariousness  of  suffering, 
and  the  possible  cure  of  the  diseased  member  by  the 
vigor  of  the  healthy  ones.  And  when  nature  shows 
herself  directly  hostile,  and  wounds  or  kills,  this 
presents  no  new  difficulty,  or  any  other  than  that 
which  comes  from  the  fact  of  death  itself.  That  this 
Providence  contains  the  element  of  severity  as  well  as 


366  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

of  pure  beneficence,  proves  that  each  is  an  element  of 
the  Divine  benevolence,  and  that  such  Love  is  ruled  by 
moral  requirements. 

If  Love  be  Divine  then,  one  must  judge  and  esti- 
mate it  by  our  highest  conception  of  the  same.  To 
recognize  it  as  ministering  to  one  set  of  wants  and 
lonofinors,  and  not  to  all,  is  insufficient.  It  must  do 
more  than  provide  food  which  nourishes  and  delights, 
and  clothing  and  shelter  which  are  grateful,  and  a 
field  for  physical  and  mental  activity,  and  a  various 
and  inexhaustible  beauty.  It  appears  as  a  finer 
quality  when  satisfying  a  deeper  longing  than  for  all 
these  ;  when  it  becomes  personal,  and  is  the  interfu- 
sion of  heart  with  heart.  This  personal  relation  is 
illustrated  in  the  tie  which  binds  man  and  wife,  parent 
and  child,  friend  and  friend.  These  are  longings  and 
delights  higher  and  more  during  than  all  physical 
pleasure  and  aesthetic  rapture.  As  personal  relations, 
they  hint  of,  lead  to,  and  reflect  the  religious  relation, 
to  which  all  moral  relations  are  subservient.  Because 
of  love,  the  father  toils,  the  mother  bleeds  herself,  the 
child  obeys,  and  man  and  wife  have  common  inter- 
ests. Love  enriches  itself  the  more,  the  more  it 
overflows,  and  it  can  never  exhaust  its  own  capacities, 
nor  the  supply  of  reciprocation.  It  is  limited  in  its 
degrees  only  by  the  imperfection  of  its  object,  though 
sustained  by  the  hope  or  belief  that  such  imperfection 
may  diminish  :  and  it  does  not  know  its  own  resources 
nor  its  own  capacity  for  delight  till  that  object  be- 
comes faultless  and  sufficient.  All  human  love  has 
this  element  of  imperfection,  and  creates  the  longing 
for  perfect  love.  Love  for  man  is  the  surest  way  to 
reach  love  for  God  ;  and  thus  it  may  be  on  the  way  to 


THE  PERSONAL  RE  LA  TION.  367 

its  own  highest  exercise  and  return  without  knowing 
it,  or  avowing  it,  and  be  already  near  to  the  Divine 
disclosure. 

That  to  realize  a  personal  relation  with  the  Foun- 
tain of  our  being  is  the  profoundest  tendency  of  our 
whole  complex  structure,  is  shown  by  the  universal 
instinct  of  prayer,  never  wanting,  always  existing 
however  disguised,  that  which  shows  itself  bursting 
from  the  heart  of  the  avowed  unbeliever  in  moments 
of  peril  or  strong  emotion.  All  feticism  or  idolatry  is 
a  feeling  after  a  personal  centre  in  the  inanimate, 
and  has  its  own  logic.  This  stock  or  stone,  it  feels, 
is  more  than  it  seems.  There  is  power  behind  it 
which  can  bless  or  injure.  Let  it  by  all  means  be 
appeased,  or  rendered  benignant.  This  is  not  the 
criminality  of  idolatry,  which  consists  not  in  worship- 
ping the  symbol,  but  in  making  it  the  symbol  of  an 
unethical  divinity,  by  severing  its  imagined  power  in 
thought  from  the  moral  element,  and  by  seeking  to 
excuse,  through  some  surplus  service  or  otherwise, 
its  moral  derelictions.  Prayer  becomes  purified  when 
it  recognizes  the  unity  of  the  governing  powers,  and 
identifies  the  external  Providence  with  the  inward 
law.  Slowly  does  the  human  race  come  to  recognize 
this  unity,  passing  to  maturity  only  through  its  infancy 
and  childhood.  But  it  comes  at  length  to  long  for 
and  to  find  a  true  and  close  relation  to  the  governing 
and  loving  Power.  It  cannot  be  satisfied  till  there  is 
full  warrant  for  regarding  this  relation  as  personal,  till 
the  heart  feels  the  Divine  heart  in  the  darkness,  or 
recognizes  it  in  the  twilight,  nor  be  entirely  satisfied 
in  its  love  and  aspiration  till  the  disclosures  of  the 
high  noon. 


368  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

Of  this  fact  and  truth,  which  describes  the  human 
being  in  his  innermost,  Christianity  lays  hold.  It 
shows  us  how,  step  by  step,  period  by  period,  God  has 
revealed  himself,  in  his  force,  in  his  wisdom,  in  his 
grandeur  and  beauty.  Of  all  this  revelation  the  world 
is  full.  And  pari  passu  with  this  He  has  revealed 
his  Love,  by  the  requirement  of  love  in  the  moral  law, 
whose  motive-spring  is  love  and  whose  final  cause  is 
the  commonwealth  of  love.  These  are  intended  to 
conduct  the  human  race  at  length  to  the  understand- 
ing of  its  deepest  longing,  for  a  closer  relation  still. 
When  a  few,  even  two  or  three,  have  reached  this 
point,  there  is  a  possibility  of  this  longing  being  grat- 
ified, and  the  conditions  for  it  displayed.  It  could 
not  be  for  one  only,  for,  that  the  loving  principle 
may  be  strengthened,  the  conditions  for  reciproca- 
tion must  be  supplied.  But  any  more  than  one  is  all 
that  is  needful  to  become  the  nucleus  of  the  kingdom 
of  God  on  the  earth.  As  Christians  at  the  last  day 
will  long  for  the  ultimate  disclosure,  so,  once,  longed 
some  for  such  Divine  disclosure  as  would  revive  hope 
for  humanity  and  generate  a  new  enthusiasm.  Hence 
Jesus  Christ,  hence  the  Incarnation  of  the  Eternal 
Son,  in  which  was  found  the  utmost  display  of  the 
Divine  Love  that  the  human  mind  can  follow  and  the 
human  heart  appreciate.  God  can  come  no  nearer  to 
man,  seeing,  hearing,  thinking,  feeling,  than  to  show 
himself  in  human  form,  and  the  longing  for  the  per- 
sonal tie  receives  its  utmost  possible  increment  of 
gratification. 

Wonderful  privilege,  to  look  upon  that  face  and 
form,  to  hear  that  voice,  to  feel  the  touch  of  those 
hands  !     It  was  matter  of  faith  still,  (for  to  have  been 


THE  PERSONAL  RELATION.  369 

more  would  have  been  no  boon,)  that  God  was  thus 
veiled  yet  exhibited.  That  his  disciples  so  believed 
is  enough  to  account  for  all  their  enthusiasm,  and  the 
cheerfulness  of  their  martyrdom.  It  is  not  to  be  iden- 
tified with  the  final  disclosure,  for  it  is  God  with  the 
power  and  majesty  still  veiled,  with  wisdom  fallen 
back  upon  its  reserve,  and  displaying  itself  through 
human  limitations  to  human  capacities  :  yet  by  this 
very  veiling  and  reserve  showing  God  as  loving  most 
appreciably.  There  must  be  the  desire  still  that  the 
loving  and  beloved  One  shall  resume  the  display  of 
all  his  attributes,  ere  the  personal  tie  can  be  all  that 
its  idea  involves,  but  for  this  they  must  wait  till  they 
acquire  their  own  fitness  for  the  ultimate  revelation, 
till  the  whole  brotherhood  of  sons  can  be  presented 
to  the  Father.  This  must,  through  the  coming  career, 
be  disciplined  to  a  perfect  patience,  must  follow  in  the 
footsteps  of  the  Lord's  sacrifice,  and  gather  its  own 
congeners  by  speeding  upon  the  loving  impulse  which 
started  it.  The  perfection  of  the  personal  tie  requires 
something  more  than  is  vouchsafed  to  us  Christians 
here  on  earth,  something  more  still  than  was  vouch- 
safed to  his  friends  by  him  who  blessed  and  brake  the 
bread,  something  more  than  was  allowed  for  those 
who  touched  the  wounds  given  on  Calvary,  and  saw 
him  vanish  from  the  mount  of  the  Ascension.  These 
last  were  boons  to  faith,  indeed,  but  so  transitory  as 
to  leave  the  longing  for  secure  possession  still  unsat- 
isfied. And  when  that  possession  shall  be  ultimately 
yielded,  they  and  we,  who  are  to  exist  in  the  body 
still,  though  glorified,  and  with  an  organism  through 
which  we  can  forever  find  delight  in  the  beautiful 
universe,  will  be  near  to  God,  not  by  abstract  spiritual 

Vol.  II. 


370  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

contemplation,  but  to  God  as  revealed  in  Christ,  and 
through  the  symbolism  of  the  body.  That  we  shall 
see  God  face  to  face,  whatever  spiritual  meaning  such 
words  may  likewise  have,  will  be  literally  true.  Now 
the  human  face,  and  the  human  voice,  and  the  human 
gesture  and  touch  disclose  to  us  the  inner  soul  of  one 
we  love.  In  the  heavenly  state  these  will  still  sym- 
bolize the  spiritual  relation.  Though  the  adytum, 
the  sanctuary  of  our  individuality  will  still  be  inviolate 
and  unviolable,  it  will  never  fear  violation,  and  will 
let  its  content  be  seen  with  no  misgiving  or  need  of 
withholding.  So  the  Divine  heart  will  still  show 
itself  through  the  human  symbolism.  We  shall  see 
the  face  of  Christ,  and  hear  his  voice,  and  feel  the 
touch  of  that  hand,  and  know  that  beneath  us  are  the 
everlasting  arms.  We  shall  not  apprehend  any  with- 
holding of  mystery.  The  Divine  smile  will  beckon 
us  to  follow  into  the  recesses  of  the  Divine  thought. 
It  will  disclose  an  open  field  for  our  endless  endeavor  : 
and  to  know  that  that  field  has  no  termination  will  be 
the  inspiring  spring  of  an  everlasting  activity,  accom- 
plishing new  surprises  of  joy  forever  and  forever. 

Human  aspiration,  while  based  upon  adoration,  and 
the  knowledge  of  its  own  creaturehood  and  depend- 
ence, cannot  go  beyond  this.  To  do  so  would  be  to 
return  to  the  principle  of  evil. 

O  Father,  take  us  to  thine  heart,  thus  and  thus, 
through  Jesus  Christ,  our  Brother  and  thy  Son. 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

SUPPLEMENTARY, ARGUMENT    FOR    AN    OPTIMISTIC 

PHILOSOPHY. 

The  philosophy  of  the  foregoing  treatise  may  rightly 
be  called  Optimistic.  That  as  such  it  will  be  regarded 
favorably  by  the  Christian  believer,  the  author  has  no 
doubt.  But  that  by  some  it  will  be  looked  upon  with 
incredulity,  or  hesitation,  is  also  possible  or  certain. 
Their  minds  will  suggest  with  varying  force  or  clear- 
ness the  objections  which  arise  at  times  in  all  minds 
whatever  during  this  not  yet  fully  illumined  dispensa- 
tion of  faith.  So  far  as  such  are  merely  spontaneous 
feelings  intensified  by  the  glamour  of  imagination 
they  require  no  scrutiny.  But  as  these,  even,  imply 
incoherent  thought,  they  are  still  and  so  far  mental 
difficulties,  and  must  be  examined, — to  show  that  they 
are  not  rational,  i.  e.,  that  the  conclusions  they  urge 
towards  cannot  take  place  in  any  unified  system  of 
thought, — and  that  the  view  from  which  they  shrink, 
or  before  which  they  hesitate,  is  indeed  rational,  and 
an  element  of  the  only  possible  dialectic. 

Perhaps  the  essential  element  in  every  form  which 
such  objection  can  take  may  be  stated  as  a  con- 
crete question  as  follows.  The  function  of  imagi- 
nation is  in  any  case  discoverable,  the  mediating 
principle  between  all  feeling  and  the  material  of 
knowledge.     There  is  then  formed  a  mental  repre- 

371 


372  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

sentation  of  this  state  of  the  universe  to  which, 
according  to  this  philosophy,  so  far  optimistic,  it  is 
tending,  viz.,  a  commonwealth  of  perfected  and 
glorified  human  souls,  each  member  of  it  loving 
each  other,  and  the  All-loving  Father,  with  supreme, 
boundless,  and  unchanging  love,  having  the  physical 
material  pliant  and  subservient  to  any  of  their  subjec- 
tive purposes,  and  perpetually  penetrating  the  exhaust- 
less  depth  of  the  Divine  thoughts,  as  they  come  to 
be  progressively  realized  or  intimated. 

Then,  turning  away  from  this  representation,  and 
regarding,  on  the  other  hand,  the  factors  from  which 
this  commonwealth  is  to  be  created,  the  impulse  to  be 
incredulous,  or  to  reject  it  as  possible  or  probable,  be- 
comes very  strong.  There  is  brought  up  in  imagina- 
tion, or  regarded  actually,  some  or  any  one  of  the 
poorest  specimens  of  the  human  race, — the  Australian, 
or  other  savage,  almost  a  brute, — or  some  one  of  the 
corrupted  products  of  civilization,  stupid  and  sensual, 
or  wilfully  cruel  and  devilish, — and  to  think  that  such 
a  one  can  be  developed  into  a  member  of  the  imma- 
culate commonwealth,  and  set  forward  in  a  career 
of  endless  expansion,  is  a  task  to  which  the  mind 
seems  inadequate, — a  trial  of  faith  too  great  to  be 
surmounted.  No  token  seems  obvious  that  any  pro- 
cess has  commenced,  or  is  progressing,  converting  the 
one  into  the  other, — no  evidence  that  it  is  possible, 
or  probable. 

But,  arguing  a  priori,  we  may  say  that,  if  all  men 
are  essentially  alike,  the  principle  rendering  develop- 
ment possible  must  exist  in  every  member  of  the 
human  race,  as  such.  Confessedly  the  finest  and 
worthiest  product  of  civilization  has  been  developed 


SUPPLEMENTARY.  373 

from  a  state  similarly  low,  but — only  by  the  improve- 
ment of  a  succession  of  generations ;  hence,  in  the 
individual,  with  a  vantage  already  gained  through 
heredity,  which,  also,  has  modified  and  rendered  more 
favorable  the  immediate  environment. 

In  the  endeavor  to  make,  in  thought,  the  possibility 
of  such  development  universal  the  difficulty  would,  of 
course,  be  insurmountable  did  we  exclude  the  possi- 
bility of  the  prolongation  of  such  development  after 
death.  In  that  case  we  should  be  obliged  to  hold  that 
all  antecedent  individuals  and  races  have  been  or  will 
be  so  far  carried  on  in  their  progress,  and  been  sacri- 
ficed, for  the  improvement  and  possible  perfection  of 
future  generations,  or  of  the  ultimate  one.  Admitting 
the  possibility  of  such  prolongation  after  death,  the 
objection  disappears,  and  we  fall  back  upon  the  con- 
clusion that  the  principle  of  development  in  the 
individual  has  permanent  worth. 

And  even  in  the  mundane  career  the  fact  that,  in 
certain  individuals,  development  has  progressed  so  far, 
is  evidence  not  only  that  it  is  ideally  possible  for  all, 
but  that  actually  the  principle  of  it  has  not  been  un- 
progressive.  In  every  case  it  proceeds  from  the 
principle  already  lodged  in  the  infant,  showing  that 
the  rudimental  consciousness  was  more  than  animal, 
and  had  spiritual  characteristics  and  possibilities.  All 
that  has  been  needed  was  a  fitting  environment.  This, 
though  variously  adapted,  exists  in  some  form  ade- 
quate to  move  forward  the  developing  subject  partial- 
ly, to  some  extent,  and  with  variant  degrees  of  speed. 
The  abstract  possibility  of  such  development  is  there- 
fore thinkable  for  every  individual  of  the  human  race. 
All  that  is  needful  is  to  discover,  in  fact,  the  develop- 


374  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

ing  principle,  and  the  various  adaptations  of  the 
environment  take  their  place  in  the  whole  providential 
scheme. 

From  analogy  we  may  argue  that, — as  there  is  no 
waste  anywhere  in  the  physical  universe,  and  since 
energy  is  a  moving  circle  perpetually  returning  into 
itself, — there  is  no  waste  anywhere,  and  therefore  that 
the  developing  principle,  if  discoverable,  must  neces- 
sarily stir  and  proceed  in  the  direction  towards  the 
realization  of  the  idea  implicit  in  it  (or,  possibly,  in 
another  direction.  But  of  this  hereafter).  It  must 
then  somehow,  at  some  time,  and  somewhere,  have  an 
environment  suitable  to  it,  that  it  may  fulfil  progres- 
sively its  purpose  in  the  Divine  intent  (or,  possibly, 
reverse  itself  and  endeavor  its  own  extinguishment). 

What  we  have  to  do,  therefore,  is  to  vindicate  for 
every  human  being  as  such  the  existence  of  such  a 
principle  to  be  developed,  and  that  not  merely  mental 
(which  no  one  would  deny),  but  ethical.  If  this  can 
be  done,  then  the  further  conclusion,  that  the  environ- 
ment might  also  be  adapted  and  rendered  favorable 
to  any  required  physical  development,  might  readily 
be  held  or  granted. 

To  refuse  to  admit  that  any  such  principle  of 
ethical  development  exists  in  every  human  being  as 
such,  can  only  come  from  a  superficial  examination 
and  imperfect  analysis  of  the  content  of  any  human 
soul.  The  distinction  between  the  brute  and  the 
man,  even  the  savage  man,  wherefrom  exists  in  the 
latter  such  a  principle  of  ethical  development,  which 
can  blossom  into  all  that  the  most  optimistic  view 
requires,  is  found,  on  such  analyzing  scrutiny,  to  be 
that  in  the  human  being  alone  is  the  presence  of  a 


SUPPLEMENTA  RY.  375 

universalistic  idea,  or  ideal  end, — which  may  be 
elucidated  and  brought  home  to  the  simplest  capacity 
in  this  way. 

When  one  brute  assaults  or  threatens  to  assault  an- 
other, the  impulse  in  the  one  assaulted  or  threatened 
is  to  do  one  of  three  things  :  (1)  to  avoid  and  thus 
escape  the  designed  infliction  ;  (2)  to  be  beforehand 
in  the  assault  in  order  to  ward  off  the  infliction,  and 
render  the  attempt  abortive  or  innocuous  ;  or  (3)  to 
resent  and  return  the  attack,  not  to  avoid  the  at- 
tempted injury,  but  from  a  reciprocal  hostile  impulse 
thus  aroused,  submitting  meanwhile  to  any  possible 
pain  or  damage. 

The  human  being  may  also,  and  does  often,  from 
his  impulse  as  an  animal,  do  either  of  these  three  things. 
But  he  may  also  do  something  other, — something 
we  cannot  discover  that  the  brute  ever  does, — one  or 
the  other  of  two  things.  He  may,  first,  so  resent  the 
attack,  whether  inflicted  or  threatened,  as  to  return  by 
way  of  revenge  the  intended  injury.  This  implies  a 
mental  disapproval  of  the  disposition  which  prompts 
the  attack,  and  that  he  constitutes  himself  the  agent 
to  punish  it,  and  to  show  that  such  a  disposition  can- 
not be  carried  into  action  with  impunity,  and  is  itself 
a  violation  of  a  principle.  This  is  none  other  than 
the  principle  of  Justice,  which,  in  its  pure  and  primal 
form,  we  have  shown  to  be  none  other  than  the  prin- 
ciple of  Love.  However  he  may  err  in  presuming  to 
be  the  vicegerent  of  this  principle  in  its  form  of 
severity,  as  not  having  foresight  of  consequences  suffi- 
ciently ample  and  far-reaching,  there  is  still  implicit  in 
such  revengeful  return  the  conviction,  that  the  dispo- 
sition to  put  to  pain,  except  for  remedial  purpose  and 


376  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

loving  end,  is  irrational.  Here,  already,  we  find  a 
law,  inwrought  in  his  structure,  which  presupposes  an 
ideal.  There  is  a  spontaneous  recognition  that  it  is 
absolute  in  its  character :  than  which  human  thought 
and  feeling  can  go  no  deeper, — i.  e.,  that  no  profounder 
law  governing  this  law  is  discoverable. 

Or,  secondly,  he  may  do  something  to  weaken  or 
annul  the  inclination  of  the  adversary  to  make  any 
such  attack.  A  gesture,  a  word,  an  expression  of  the 
face,  may  have  this  for  its  interpretation.  Thus  is 
displayed  in  his  mind  the  thought  that  the  enemy 
may  be  induced  to  rethink  the  matter  and  abandon 
the  intention,  that  the  unkind  impulse  in  that  case 
would  subside,  and  the  normal  wave  of  feeling  flow 
back  in  its  stead, — the  feeling  of  sympathy  and  good- 
will required  by  the  self-preserving  needs  of  the  social 
state.  The  same  possibility  must  be  in  the  mind  of 
each,  and  the  manifestation  of  the  thought  by  the  one 
may  awaken  it  in  the  mind  of  the  other.  It  is  pre- 
sented as  that  which  is  or  may  be  more  attractive 
than  the  divellent  tendency,  and  as  the  habitual  im- 
plicit conviction  to  which  the  mind  must  return  when 
the  physical  cloudiness  has  subsided,  and  thought  re- 
turns to  its  pure  air.  Thus  the  normal  flow  of  human 
feeling,  temporarily  disturbed,  may  be  restored,  and 
thereby  is  furnished  evidence  that  the  sympathy  which 
draws  together  is  the  habitual  and  profoundest  one, 
and  that  to  which,  in  the  constitution  of  the  universe, 
every  thing  tends  to  return  when  the  negating  inter- 
ruption has  subsided.  The  recuperative  movement  is 
herein  shown  to  be  paramount,  that  which  returns  to 
harmony  ;  and  the  original  and  permanent  instincts  of 
humanity  thus  show  their  tendency  towards  the  ideal 


5  UPPLEMENTA  RY.  377 

end,  which  alone  can  put  to  rest  the  disturbance  of  the 
thought-faculty,  and  afford  full  satisfaction  to  the 
aesthetic  sense. 

Thus  in  all  this  is  contained  the  philosophy,  how- 
ever obscured  or  temporarily  distorted,  that  the  law 
of  love,  of  reciprocal  good-will  and  blessing,  is  the 
secret  of  the  human  soul ;  that  the  benevolent  sympa- 
thies exist  not  for  the  preservation  of  offspring  merely, 
or  for  any  limited  extent  whatever,  but  for  the  welfare 
and  organic  union  of  all  human  beings  as  such. 

The  only  thing  in  brute  nature  which  seems 
strongly  to  resemble  this  human  characteristic  is  the 
behavior  of  the  dog  sometimes  when  put  to  pain  by 
his  angry  master.  We  find  submission,  no  disposi- 
tion to  resent,  or  even  to  escape,  no  negating  attitude 
except,  perhaps,  a  look  of  reproach, — but,  instead, 
the  fawning  and  loving  gesture.  Here  indeed  the 
need  and  the  desire  to  be  loved,  and  the  disposition 
to  love,  are  so  strong,  all-absorbing,  and  exclusive, 
that  no  inferior  impulse  is  allowed  to  overcome  or  to 
assault  this,  and,  probably,  is  not  even  felt.  But  that 
this  is  not  a  true  analogue  to  the  human  experience  is 
manifest,  since  such  patient  endurance  of  suffering, 
and  abandonment  of  all  hostile  return,  is  exhibited 
only  in  his  relation  to  his  master,  or  in  a  very  limited 
scope.  We  lack  the  evidence  to  show  that  this  rela- 
tion of  good-will  has,  or  could  have,  universal  extent ; 
and  it  would  be  a  conclusion  from  a  too  limited  induc- 
tion, that  the  ideal  end  of  all  physical  action  was  ever, 
or  could  be  made,  clear  to  the  purely  animal  under- 
standing. Nevertheless  there  is  a  hint  and  premoni- 
tion of  its  possibility,  which  thus  corresponds  with 
previous   analogies.     This  fact  in  natural  history  is 


378  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

full  of  instruction.  It  shows  on  the  part  of  the  brute 
that  faith  in  the  good-will  and  the  wisdom  of  the  one 
supreme  over  him  has  been  made  impregnable  to  any 
assault ;  and  that  the  need  to  love  and  to  be  loved  is 
that  into  which  the  brute  experience  may  shrink  ;  that 
thus,  even  in  the  sphere  of  nature,  the  principle  of  sac- 
rifice is  shadowed  forth,  and  may  exist  in  intense 
degree,  though  within  a  limited  range. 

Such  exhibition  of  faithful  and  tender  love  is  so 
touching  as  to  appeal  to  the  profoundest  feeling  of 
the  human  heart,  and  to  arouse  in  intense  degree  the 
emotion  of  the  Beautiful.  It  arouses  even  genuine 
and  pure  grief  for  the  death,  and  starts  even  the  wish 
for  the  prolonged  existence,  of  one  so  purely  loving. 
It  impels,  even,  to  look  for  justification  of  the  belief 
that  such  may  be  the  case.  Nor  is  it  at  all  contradic- 
tory to  think  that  the  perfected  human  soul  may  re- 
create the  beloved  and  sacrificing  one ;  nay,  no  con- 
tradiction to  think  that  the  continuity  of  its  existence 
may  not  have  been  necessarily  lost.  Conditional  im- 
mortality is  therefore  thinkable  for  the  brute,  though 
not  for  man. 

In  the  characteristics  of  human  soul-experience 
above  alluded  to,  is  the  conclusive  evidence  that  the 
moral  ideal  exists,  however  obscurely  or  incoherently, 
in  every  human  consciousness.  On  account  of  this, 
therefore,  during  the  increase  of  empirical  knowledge, 
and  the  consequent  mental  progress,  moral  alterna- 
tives become  possible ;  moral  distinctions  acquire 
increasing  clearness,  moral  convictions  receive  force, 
and  are  at  length  recognized  as  rational,  and  take  the 
form  of  the  judgment  of  obligation  with  its  accom- 
panying feeling. 


SUPPLEMENTARY.  379 

Here,  then,  is  the  ethical  germ  we  are  seeking  to 
discover,  and  the  principle  of  an  endless  development. 
For  the  lack  of  this  the  development  of  the  brute  is 
comprised  within  a  limited  range.  There  is  nothing 
discoverable  in  it  which  shows  the  need  of  a  prolonged 
existence  to  explain  it.  It  has  fulfilled  its  idea.  The 
infusion  of  this  ethical  element  into  the  animal  con- 
sciousness, or  its  irradiation  from  the  spirit  realm, 
(and  that  this  expression,  or  any  other  terms,  fail  to 
describe  it,  shows  that  it  is  a  mystical  procedure,  and 
eludes  the  understanding,)  is  a  proper  creation,  and 
makes  it  distinctively  human.  Thus  the  scientific 
allegation,  that  man  is  developed  from  the  lower  ani- 
mals, may  be  admitted  without  any  risk  to  spiritual 
truth.  The  appearance  of  the  human  characteristic 
is  still  a  creation,  in  any  valid  sense  of  the  word.  It 
may  be  that  more  is  gained  than  lost  for  thought  by 
the  admission,  (though  the  scientific  evidence  for  it  as 
a  fact  is  by  no  means  yet  sufficient),— in  the  discovery 
or  confirmation  of  the  thought  that  an  ideal  purpose 
is  wrapped  up  in  the  entire  development  of  the  uni- 
verse, always  obscurely  progressive,  but  sometimes 
coming  to  the  surface  for  recognition.  The  con- 
stantly intensifying  conviction  of  this  unifying  move- 
ment gives  clearer  and  clearer  hints  of  its  end,  or  final 
cause  ;  from  which  alone  we  might  validly  infer  that 
the  human  race,  as  we  find  it  now,  is  not  stationary, 
but  moving  in  an  elevating  progress  to  which  we  can 
see  no  termination  ;  the  idea  of  which  it  already  pos- 
sesses, and  which  alone  can  explain  its  profoundest 
instinct, — that  of  aspiration. 

That  such  ethical  development  should  proceed 
securely  and  successfully  is  alone  satisfying  to  the 


380  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

reason  and  the  aesthetic  sense ;  and  the  conviction 
that  this  was  truly  the  case  would  be  constant  and 
growing  stronger  but  for  the  existence  of  the  contra- 
diction, the  actuality  of  moral  evil,  and  the  apparent 
reversal  of  the  developing  ethical  process. 

We  cannot  turn  away  from  this  fact,  for  then  we 
should  be  resting  in  a  conclusion  drawn  from  a  partial 
induction  only.  And  this  fact  introduces  an  element 
of  doubt,  weakens  at  times  our  aspiration  and  limits 
our  hopes.  Here,  then,  without  repeating  the  argu- 
ment of  this  treatise,  that  the  insolubility  of  the  prob- 
lem of  evil  is  a  necessary  condition  for  faith,  and 
hence  for  the  removal  of  the  contradiction  itself,  we 
find  ourselves  obliged  to  say, — that  the  existence  of 
the  contradiction,  in  a  self-determining  being,  makes  it 
possible  to  think  that  the  ethical  movement  may  be 
reversed,  and  bring  about  endless  shrinking  and  im- 
poverishment of  being,  as  well  as  that  it  may  issue  in 
an  endless  growth  and  expansion. 

That  the  former  process  may  go  on  and  result  in 
the  utter  extinction  of  the  human  soul,  (or  resolution 
into  its  abstract  elements,  so  that  it  will  cease  to  be  a 
concrete,)  is  a  tempting  thought-expedient ;  against 
which,  however,  we  need  only  urge  the  objections 
formerly  made, — that  such  conclusion  assaults  the  ab- 
solute distinction  of  moral  good  and  evil,  renders  ille- 
gitimate the  sense  of  responsibility  and  guilt,  and 
even  banishes  any  notion  of  sin,  or  degrades  it  into  the 
choice  of  a  merely  prudential  alternative.  It  obliges 
to  rethink  the  whole  philosophy,  and  to  subside  into 
one  in  which  the  true  ethical  element  is  wanting.  The 
mental  movement,  under  this  scheme,  is  away  from 
and  not  towards  a  unified  system,  and  its  termination 
is  a  despairing  Pyrrhonism. 


SUPPLEMENTARY.  381 

With  this  dark  shadow  casting  its  gloom,  at  times, 
over  the  increasing  light,  yet  trusting  that  for  our 
ultimate  consciousness  it  may  be  lifted,  we  still  abide 
in  our  optimistic  philosophy,  as  having  rational  foun- 
dation, and  one  for  which  the  evidence  is  constantly 
accumulating. 

The  principle  of  self-development,  in  which  the 
mental  progress  is  determined  by  the  ethical  move- 
ment or  fluctuations,  requires  time  as  its  pre-condition. 
Under  this  the  adult  human  is  developed  from  the  in- 
fantine consciousness,  with  variant  speed  and  degree, 
according  to  environment  more  or  less  favorable.  The 
same  process  may  go  on  more  slowly,  but  still  actually, 
in  the  savage  individual  or  race,  in  which,  as  before, 
the  ethical  principle  must  modify  the  growing  mental 
experience  and  changing  purposes.  Observation  here 
has  been  too  superficial  to  allow  any  plausible  objection 
to  this.  The  ethical  ideal  must  in  every  case  be  ob- 
scurely or  implicitly  held,  if  never  clearly  and  explicitly 
recognized.  Its  tendency  from  the  original  predisposi- 
tion of  humanity  is  towards  clearness,  and  it  can  only 
be  darkened  wilfully,  and  after  the  moral  alternatives 
come  to  be  more  intelligently  perceived.  From  this 
it  follows  that  the  savage  man  cannot  become  as 
purely  and  spiritually  evil,  as  may  the  product  of  cul- 
ture, since  not  perceiving  so  clearly,  either  in  form  or 
matter,  the  moral  distinction  ;  and  that  the  larger  part 
of  his  actions  will  still  come  from  the  animal  instincts, 
and  while  judged  by  us  as  brutish,  still  do  not  argue 
the  deadness  of  the  ethical  principle,  or  the  retrogres- 
sion of  its  development  (except,  as  before,  it  be  wil- 
ful) ;  and  thus  that  conclusions  as  to  his  moral  status 
may  be  hasty  and  untrustworthy.  Thus  that  the  Di- 
vine intent  and  idea  for  man  is  such  as  authorizes  an 


382  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

optimistic  philosophy  is  not  contradicted  by  any  con- 
clusion hastily  drawn  from  the  contemplation  of  savage 
life. 

The  delays  and  apparent  slowness  in  human  ethical 
progress,  we  have  heretofore  in  this  treatise  endeav- 
ored to  show,  are  needed  to  retain  us  still  in  the 
region  of  faith,  and  that  their  purpose  is  the  intensifi- 
cation of  the  spiritual  element  in  man. 

We  never  find  the  deliberate  denial  of  moral  distinc- 
tions, and  hence  of  the  possibility  of  moral  develop- 
ment, except  in  men  of  extreme  culture  ;  and  that,  too, 
not  spontaneous  but  wilful,  and  as  the  result  of  a 
resolute  mental  effort.  But  if  the  ground  of  any  rec- 
ognition of  the  same  be  the  spontaneous  sympathies 
in  human  nature,  we  may  rightly  look  for  the  unifica- 
tion of  human  consciousness,  and  expressed  opinion, 
in  this  particular ;  and  hence  is  rendered  possible  for 
human  thought,  in  a  forecasting  effort,  that  the  clear 
distinction  of  moral  good  and  evil,  as  universalistic  and 
individualistic,  will  come  at  length  to  be  the  common 
consciousness  of  the  human  race,  rendering- thus  every 
moral  choice  absolutely  deliberate  ;  in  which  case  the 
holy  ones  will  spring  forth  in  an  impetus  which  will 
have  no  repression  or  termination,  yet  can  never  ex- 
haust the  eternities.  That  in  that  day  none  will  make 
the  contradictory  choice  is  what  we  hope,  yet  the 
possibility  of  which  we  cannot  deny.  Thus  our  phi- 
losophy, while  rightly  described  as  optimistic,  may  still 
for  its  most  ardent  adherent  be  assaulted  by  this  pessi- 
mistic gloom  ;  which  however  does  not  impair  its  ra- 
tionality, or  weaken  it  from  any  possible  comparison. 

That  the  irrational  will  ever  cease  to  exist  is  a 
conclusion  for  the  thought-faculty,  under  its  present 


SUPPLEMENTARY.  383 

limitations,  only  consistent  by  concluding  also  that  it 
does  riot  now  exist ;  and  thus  to  think  would  be  to 
subside  into  the  most  hopeless  of  all  dilemmas, — thus 
to  avow  is  itself  a  confutation  of  the  thesis  itself. 

Let  us  have  faz't/i  that  that  which  is  highest  in  us  is 
the  absolute  highest,  the  first  and  the  last,  the  Alpha 
and  Omega, — for  faith  in  Love  is  itself  love :  and  Love 
is  life  eternal,  with  infinite  capacity  and  surety  of 
efflorescence. 


APPENDIX   E. 

I.  Peter,  ch.  iii.,  v.  18-2 r. 

On  xai  Xpiffroi  anaB,  mpi  afxapricbv  shads,  Sixaio?  vnsp 
adixcov,  i'va  rjfj.aS  npoaayayi)  tg5  Qec5,  davaroodsli  j£v  6apxiy 
ZaooTtoirjdei?  6s  7tvsvp.arv  sv  g3  xai  toi?  sv  <pv\axi)  nvsvfxaOi 
nopsvOsi?  sxi]pvB,sv,  ansiBijaaai  nors,  ore  a7ts^sdsxsto  V  tov 
Qsov  juaxpodvpila  sv  t/juspai?  Ngjs,  xaTaffxsvaCo/usvTjS 
xifiooToi),  si?  rfv  oXiyai,  rovr  sffttv  oxtgo,  tpvxai  SisGoodijGav 
Si  vSaro?,  b  xai  rjjuaS  avrirvnov  vvv  ffooQsi  (Hanno jj,a,  x.  t.  X. 

LITERAL  TRANSLATION. 

Because  Christ  also  once  suffered  on  account  of  sins,  the 
righteous  one  for  the  sake  of  the  unrighteous,  that  He  might 
lead  us  towards  God  ;  having  been  put  to  death  indeed  as 
to  his  carnal  nature,  but  made  living  as  to  his  spiritual 
nature,  in  which  also,  having  proceeded  thither,  He  preached 
to  the  spiritual  ones  in  safe-keeping,  who  at  one  time  had 
been  unbelieving  when  the  patient  endurance  of  God  had 
waited,  in  the  days  of  Noah  while  the  ark  was  preparing,  in 
which  a  few — that  is  to  say,  eight  souls,  were  saved  by 
means  of  water  ;  the  antitype  of  which,  Baptism,  now  saves 
us, — etc. 

I.  Peter,  ch.  iv.,  v.  6. 

Ei?  tovto  yap  xai  vsxpoii  svtjyysXiadr},  i'va  xpidooffi  fxhv 
xara  avSpooitovi  Gapxi,  QdoGi  6s  xara  Qsov  nvsvpiari. 

FREE   TRANSLATION. 

For  on  account  of  this  the  gospel  was  preached  to  the 
dead  also  ;  that  although  condemned,  indeed,  as  men  judge, 
as  to  the  carnal  nature ;  they  might,  in  the  Divine  regard, 
in  their  spiritual  nature,  be  living.    - 

385 


386  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

Whether  those  passages  from  the  first  epistle  of  St. 
Peter  have  any  bearing  upon  the  enquiry  as  to  the  condition 
of  souls  after  death  is  much  disputed.  The  difference  of 
opinion  is  chiefly  upon  the  point  whether  the  preaching 
referred  to  in  the  first  passage  took  place  in  the  time  of 
Noah,  or  in  the  interval  between  Jesus'  death  and  his  resur- 
rection ;  upon  which  will  depend,  measurably,  the  further 
enquiry  whether  the  preaching  referred  to  in  the  second 
passage  is  identical  with  that  spoken  of  in  the  first. 

The  enquiry  can  be  made  as  a  purely  philological  one,  and 
the  interpretation  thus  reached,  as  most  probably,  if  not 
entirely  certain,  be  fitted,  as  it  best  can,  to  the  context  and 
to  theological  prerequisites  ;  or  these  latter  can  be  borne  in 
mind  in  the  investigation  ;  and  should  the  philological  evi- 
dence be  evenly  balanced,  or  even  seem  slightly  to  prepon- 
derate on  the  one  side,  yet  the  other  interpretation  may  be 
preferred  as  more  readily  adjustable  to  theological  require- 
ments. 

It  seems  to  have  been  difficult  to  approach  this  question 
without  some  degree  of  mental  bias,  and  the  strong  wish  to 
find  one  interpretation  valid.  Naively  the  early  Christian 
writers  judged  the  passages  to  refer  to  some  communication 
of  Christ  to  departed  souls  after  his  death  ;  and  they  wel- 
comed it  as  thus  throwing  light  upon  this  matter  of  surpass- 
ing interest.  That  they  were  fanciful  and  rash  in  many  of 
their  speculations  thereupon,  and  made  statements  which 
the  general  after-thought  of  theologians  has  rejected,  is 
admitted.  But  we  find  little  if  any  trace  of  any  other 
interpretation. 

This  bias  is  also  in  some  degree  felt  by  all  who  admit  a 
doctrine  of  an  Intermediate  State  into  their  system. 

But  in  later  days  there  has  been  a  strong  prejudice  the 
other  way,  and  the  fear  lest  the  passage  thus  interpreted 
should  be  used  to  give  countenance  to  a  doctrine  of  Purga- 
tory, or  to  the  notion  of  a  probation  after  death,  has  led 
many,  perhaps  quite  as  rashly,  to  turn  away  from  it,  and 
seek  and  defend  another  interpretation. 

Difficulties  lie  either  way,  but  perhaps  these  two  mental 


APPENDIX.  387 

predispositions  may  be  made  to  neutralize  each  other,  if  the 
passages  can  be  so  interpreted  as  indeed  referring  to  a 
preaching  of  the  gospel  to  departed  souls,  yet  to  lend  no 
countenance  whatever  to  the  notion  of  a  probation  after- 
ward, and,  indeed,  implicitly  to  exclude  it. 

Following  his  own  method,  the  present  author  must  needs 
approach  this  investigation  from  the  standpoint  in  Christian 
Doctrine  reached  in  the  text  of  this  work  thus  far,  through 
other  pathways,  and  on  independent  grounds. 

After  careful  examination  of  authorities  the  author  has 
reached  the  conclusion  that  the  Greek  text  given  at  the 
head  of  this  Appendix  is  the  one  having  preponderating 
external  evidence.  It  will  appear  also  that  it  is  fettered 
by  fewer  internal  difficulties,  and  serves  best  to  make 
the  whole  epistle  self-consistent.  Thus  we  have  i'7tad£ 
instead  of  oc7te8avsvy — the  tg3  before  the  7tvevjuaTi  is  re- 
jected,— a7te^€dix£T0  1S  preferred  to  a-rtaB,  e^eSex^o, — and 
okiyoi  is  preferred  to  dkiyai.  The  rejection  of  the  rep  is  of 
very  great  importance,  while  the  other  preferred  readings 
are  not  unimportant,  and  without  some  determining  value, 
in  harmonizing  the  whole. 

A  strong  argument  that  the  reference  is  to  a  preaching  in 
the  time  of  Noah  is  derived  from  the  ordinary  Greek  usage 
of  repeating  the  article  in  connection  with  a  noun  or  pro- 
noun of  which  it  is  intended  to  be  attributive.1  In  the 
passage  under  consideration  the  a7rEidf}6aGi  is  without  the 
article,  and  therefore  it  is  contended  that  it  is  simply  predi- 
cative, and  that  we  are  bound  to  the  meaning  that  the 
preaching  took  place  at  the  time  of  the  disobedience.  Since 
the  aorist  tense  expresses  simply  and  only  an  event  which 
had  taken  place,  or  had  begun  to  take  place,  therefore  the 
disobedience  must  have  occurred,  or  have  begun  to  occur, 
at  the  time  when  the  preaching  took  place.  But  in  the 
admission  that  the  aorist  tense  does  not  signify  a  completed 
action,  is  there   not   furnished   a  way  of  avoidance  of  the 

1  See  the  articles  by  Professor  Bartlett,  President  of  Dartmouth  College. 
New  Englander  for  October,  1872,  and  Bibliotheca  Sacra  for  April,  1883. 


388  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

criticism  brought  to  bear  upon  the  interpretation  to  be 
controverted?  For  the  participle  a7teidt]Oaai  primarily  does 
not  mean  disobedient,  but  unbelieving.  It  describes  not  so 
much  a  finished  action  as  a  relation  or  a  state  of  mind,  and 
that — faithlessness,  a  state  that  may  be  persisted  in  or  de- 
clined from,  that  may  be  strengthened  or  weakened.  Thus 
those  unbelieving  in  the  time  of  Noah,  may  continue  so,  or 
may  have  the  grounds  of  their  unbelief  drop  away,  and 
their  faith  (which  is  never  entirely  extinct)  revived,  invigor- 
ated, and  quickened.  We  shall  see  that  the  epithet  is  given 
not  so  much  in  the  positive  or  evil  sense,  as  in  the  negative 
or  privitive  sense,  by  their  being  spoken  of  afterwards  as 
rtvevfAocGi  and  not  ipvxals.  If  for  such  faith  can  be  restored, 
in  such  sort  as  to  be  comparatively  unassaultable,  or  per- 
manent, it  can  only  be  by  supplying  the  highest  or  most 
powerful  motive-spring,  i.  e.,  by  the  preaching  of  the  gospel, 
by  the  knowledge  of  the  Divine  self-limiting  Love,  shown  in 
the  person,  and  the  career,  and  the  sacrifice  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Thus  the  sense  would  be  such  as  to  make  the  aTteiBrjaaai 
without  the  article  still  declarative,  as  is  contended  in  the 
above  philological  argument. 

These  souls  were  unbelieving  when  warned  by  Noah  of 
the  impending  destruction.  His  preaching  was  not  con- 
vincing. The  message  reached  them  at  second  hand,  and 
not  immediately  as  it  did  Noah  himself.  That  the  moral 
blame  on  their  part  was  not  sufficient  to  relegate  them  to 
the  category  of  the  condemned  in  the  Divine  regard,  is 
indicated  by  this  second  preaching  by  Jesus  Christ.  Not 
all  the  antediluvians  were  referred  to  as  objects  of  this 
preaching,  or  some  other  word  would  have  been  used, 
avdpG07ZOiSy  or,  more  likely,  ipvxal?,  and  not  nvevfxaffi,  for 
the  use  of  which  word  we  must  find  sufficient  reason. 

Possibly  other  nvBV)xara  than  these  faithless  ones  are  not 
necessarily  excluded  from  the  preaching  referred  to  in  the 
text.  Several  of  the  early  Christian  writers  were  disposed 
to  gather  others  into  it.  A  suggestion  to  find  warrant  for 
this  is  made  by  Bishop  Ellicott  in  his  commentary, — who, 


APPENDIX.  389 

noticing  the  want  of  the  article  with  the  aTtsidrjGaai,  would 
make  the  clause  terminate  with  the  exrjpvgsv,  as  complete 
in  itself,  to  be  supplemented  by  the  following  clause,  as 
though  some  word  signifying  "  even  "  were  understood,  the 
reference  to  these  in  particular  being  explained  by  the  fact 
that  St.  Peter  was  evidently  in  mind  comparing  the  results 
of  the  one  preaching,  when  the  destruction  of  the  surround- 
ing nature  was  imminent,  with  the  results  of  the  other,  when 
the  winding-up  of  the  world's  career  was  thought  to  be 
imminent. 

But  we  do  not  regard  this  conjectured  reading  sufficiently 
authorized  to  build  such  conclusion  upon,  whatever  specu- 
lative grounds  there  may  be  for  holding  it.  We  contend  here 
only,  that  the  adjectival  sense  of  the  ansidrjaaai,  as  a  moral 
and  remediable  condition,  thus  not  having  particular  time- 
limitations,  is  sufficient  to  account  for  the  disuse  of  the 
article  before  it. 

Besides,  it  is  claiming  very  much  for  the  scholarship  of  St. 
Peter,  and  his  knowledge  of  classical  usage,  to  say  that  he 
adhered  so  closely  to  it,  especially  if  this  adherence  brings 
up  for  the  task  of  the  entire  interpretation  more  difficulties 
than  it  allays.  For,  aside  from  this  philological  question,  the 
difficulties  in  the  way  of  the  interpretation  which  makes  this 
preaching  something  done  in  the  time  of  Noah  are  many, 
and  we  think  insuperable.  More  violence  has  to  be  done  to 
language  than  is  done  by  the  disuse  of  the  article  referred 
to  (if  it  can  be  shown  that  perfect  accuracy  would  have  pre- 
ferred its  use).  We  have  more  novelties  to  explain,  and  are 
forced  to  give  to  words  meanings  found  nowhere  else. 

First  ;  it  is  necessary  to  make  the  enrfpvgsv  mean  some- 
thing other  than  the  EvrfyyeXiadt]  ?-  and  yet  this  last  is 
asserted  in  ch.  4,  v.  6,  of  the  vsxpoi?.  The  two  passages 
must  be  thought  then  to  have  no  connection.  It  must  be 
meant  that  what  Noah  preached  was,  of  course,  not  the 
gospel,  yet  that  the  gospel  was,  at  some  time,  preached  to  the 
dead.  Therefore  by  "  the  dead  "  must  mean  the  dead  in 
some  other  than  the  literal  sense ;   or  else  there  is  asserted 


39©  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

the  mere  truism  that  the  gospel  had  been  preached  to  some 
Christians  who  had  since  died,  for  which  latter  assertion 
there  seems  no  sufficient  occasion. 

Wherever  the  word  "  preach,"  or  its  derivatives,  in  any 
tense,  is  used  in  the  New  Testament  it  always  means  the 
preaching  of  the  good  news  of  Christ,  unless  its  meaning  be 
limited  otherwise,  as  in  the  case  of  the  preaching  of  John 
the  Baptist,  or  as  when  Noah  is  called  in  St.  Peter's  second 
epistle  "  a  preacher  of  righteousness."  Besides,  there  is  no 
intimation  anywhere  else  of  any  preaching  done  by  the 
Eternal  Son  of  God  antecedent  to  his  Incarnation,  unless 
the  communications  of  the  Angel  of  Jehovah  in  the  The- 
ophanies  be  called  preaching,  which  would  be  an  exceptional 
and  unauthorized  expansion  of  the  meaning  of  the  word. 
To  preach  is  an  appeal  to  human  sense,  intelligence,  and 
feeling.  Its  function  is  to  persuade.  None  but  men  preach. 
The  Divine  Logos,  to  preach,  must  limit  himself  to  human 
conditions  and  methods.  That  there  was  a  new  theophany 
may  indeed  have  been  the  case  ;  but  that  the  angel  preached 
to  Noah  is  not  asserted.  And  if  it  is  claimed  that  He  used 
the  mediation  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  then  this  amounts  to  the 
extravagant  assertion  that  He,  the  Eternal  Son,  is  or  was, 
as  such,  iv  7tvev}.iaTi,  which  is  a  theological  introversion  of 
the  order  of  the  hypostases  of  the  Trinity,  and  is  an  expres- 
sion, as  used  of  the  Divine  One,  without  an  analogy  or 
precedent  in  Biblical  language.  And  besides,  this  call  upon 
the  contemporaries  of  Noah  to  believe  the  Divine  word  is 
like  any  other  call  upon  men  to  believe  God's  intimations  of 
himself.  All  the  Theophanies  recorded  are  special  revela- 
tions to  individuals,  yet  here  it  must  be  thought,  in  this 
view,  to  be  to  a  multitude.  Also  the  expression  "  preached  " 
must  be  predicated  of  the  Incarnate  One,  since  what  is  said 
of  him  nv€V}xari}  is  preceded  by  something  said  of  him 
Gap  hi. 

The  admission  of  the  tg?  into  the  text  destroys  absolutely 
the  contrast  between  these  two  words,  which  is  otherwise 
and  elsewhere  evident.     We  find  the  same  contrast,  and  the 


APPENDIX.  391 

7tv£vfxari  without  the  rep  in  ch.  4,  v.  6,  where  it  is  evident 
that  the  allusion  is  not  to  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  same 
preposition  must  be  understood  as  belonging  to  both  datives  ; 
for  otherwise  any  one  might  interpose  any  preposition 
whatever  according  to  his  theological  prejudice.  The  use 
of  the  preposition  iv  immediately  afterward  makes  it  prob- 
able that  this  is  the  one  understood  in  the  antecedent 
phrases.  If,  then,  the  rep  be  admitted,  and  it  be  maintained 
that  the  allusion  is  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  then  "through"  or 
"fry"  may  be  taken  as  the  preposition  understood.  The 
contrast  then  must  be  that  He  was  put  to  death  by  men,  but 
quickened  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  St.  Peter  does  elsewhere 
say  this,  in  Acts,  ch.  2,  v.  33,  "  whom  ye  crucified  "  "  whom 
God  raised  from  the  dead."  But  it  is  a  use  of  language  with- 
out analogy  or  precedent  to  refer  to  sinful  men  in  general, 
or  even  to  particular  ones  when  engaged  in  some  particular 
action,  by  a  term  so  abstract  as  aapni,  and  here  also  there 
seems  no  sufficient  reason,  in  a  discourse  where  the  suffering 
of  Jesus  and  the  exhortation  to  follow  his  example  is  the 
main  topic,  to  refer  to  a  remote  preaching  done  in  the  time 
of  Noah.  And  besides,  in  this  interpretation,  the  7tvev}xari 
is  less  closely  connected  in  thought  with  the  nvsv/j-affi  which 
soon  follows. 

If,  then,  we  reject  the  rep  and  thus  exclude  any  allusion 
here  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  yet  still  understand  the  preposition 
"  by,"  then  one  other  meaning  only  is  possible.  If  we  under- 
stand St.  Peter  to  say  that  He  was  quickened  by  his  Divine 
nature,  then  he  must  also  have  said  that  he  was  put  to  death 
by  his  human  nature.  But  the  Divine  nature  of  the  Incar- 
nate One  is  not  called  nvevfxa.  He  ever  distinguishes  him- 
self, the  Son,  from  the  Spirit,  whom  the  Father  and  He  will 
send  ;  and  it  is  again  very  far-fetched  to  designate  those  who 
put  him  to  death  by  a  term  denoting  the  abstract  human 
nature.  And  this  nature,  when  concrete  in  him,  is  not 
active,  but  passive  in  the  putting  him  to  death. 

If,  for  these  reasons,  we  decline  to  understand  the  prepo- 
sition "  by,"  then  others  occur,  suggested  by  the  after  iv,  in 


392  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

the  flesh,  in  the  spirit,  or  in  flesh,  in  spirit,  or  as  to  the  flesh, 
as  to  the  spirit,  or  according  to  the  flesh,  according  to  the 
spirit.  These  do  not  differ  much  in  meaning,  and  all  trans- 
late iv.  The  first  is  strictest,  the  third  amplest  in  meaning. 
The  contrast  then  may  be  variously  stated.  If  it  be — put  to 
death  in,  as  to,  or  according  to  his  human  nature,  but  quick- 
ened in,  as  to,  or  according  to  his  Divine  nature,  it  is  mani- 
festly untenable,  for  the  Divine  nature,  as  such,  is  incapable 
of  any  such  quickening.  If  the  antithesis  be — put  to  death 
in  his  flesh,  or  as  to  his  bodily  existence,  yet  made  alive  as 
to  the  existence  of  his  soul,  the  objection  occurs :  Is  the 
soul  of  Christ  then  mortal  as  such?  Is  death  an  accession 
of  life  rather  than  a  deprivation  ?  The  word  Qooo7rol^6eiS 
does  not  mean  to  be,  or  to  continue  in  existence,  but  to  be 
made  living,  to  have  such  an  accession  or  exaltation  of  life 
that  it  shall  be  life  indeed.  Here  may  be  indicated  the 
transition  from  natural  to  eternal  life.  To  this  meaning  we 
shall  return,  but  to  say  simply  that  his  body  died  while  his 
soul  remained  alive  and  conscious  is  a  simple  truism  which 
there  was  no  need  for  St.  Peter  here  to  utter.  Besides, 
another  objection  to  this  view  is  that  the  body  as  distin- 
guished from  the  soul  is  not  spoken  of  in  the  New  Testament 
as  GacpH,  nor,  indeed,  the  soul  in  its  natural  existence  as 

7TV£VJAa. 

A  view  which  is  sometimes  put  forth  is  maintained  by 
changing  the  understood  preposition  ;  thus,  He  was  put  to 
death  in  his  human  nature,  but  raised  by  his  Divine  nature, 
so  that  in  his  resurrected  being  he  went  and  preached.  But 
there  is  no  record  of  any  such  preaching  to  unbelieving  ones 
done  after  his  resurrection,  unless  his  words  to  Paul  at  the 
time  of  his  conversion  be  called  such ;  and  if  any  communi- 
cation of  Christ  with  departed  souls  after  his  resurrection 
was  meant,  there  seems  no  reason  for  confining  it  to  the 
faithless  ones  in  the  time  of  Noah.  Moreover,  souls  out  of 
the  body  cannot  be  preached  to  by  souls  in  the  body ;  the 
media  of  communication  are  not  the  same.  Some  other 
word  would  be  required  to  characterize  this  mode  of  com- 


APPENDIX.  393 

munication.  But,  as  to  this  now,  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that 
the  change  of  the  understood  prepositions  is  unauthorized 
and  needless,  and  is  only  made  to  serve  a  turn.  If  we  say 
He  was  put  to  death  as  to  the  ffdpg,  we  must  hold  that  He 
was  quickened  as  to  the  nvevjua.  In  what  sense  we  should 
understand  these  expressions  we  shall  presently  enquire. 

Another  objection  to  the  interpretation  which  we  are 
examining  is  that  the  expression  iv  (pvXcmrf  is  without 
meaning  as  applied  to  living  men  in  the  time  of  Noah.  It 
would  be  a  far-fetched  and  figurative  meaning,  one  second- 
ary, exceptional,  and  isolated.  To  hold  that  this  expression 
means  confinement  in  the  body  as  in  a  prison  has  no  pre- 
cedent, and  is  moreover  a  heathenish  or  Manichean  notion. 
Christianity  does  not  propose  to  liberate  from  the  body,  but 
to  change  it,  to  transfigure  it.  Now  to  be  in  it  is  the  Divine 
thought,  and  the  means  of  our  spiritual  liberation,  and  of 
our  development. 

To  hold  that  by  "  spirits"  iv  (pvXaxij  is  meant  men  under 
bondage  to  sin,  under  captivity  to  Satan,  and  that  the 
Eternal  Son  preached  to  such  through  the  mouth  of  Noah, 
and  with  very  poor  success,  would  authorize  to  hold  that  all 
preaching  of  righteousness  whatever  was  a  similar  preaching 
by  him ;  to  which  view  we  have  already  raised  objection. 
Besides,  men  in  general  are  often  called  "souls"  in  Holy 
Scripture,  but  never  elsewhere  "  spirits."  "  Spirits  in  prison  " 
is  a  strange  phrase  for  men  under  bondage  to  sin,  since  this 
is  a  universal  predication,  whereas  in  the  passage  under  con- 
sideration there  is  an  evident  limitation.  Moreover,  the  ex- 
pression iv  cpvkaxtf  does  not,  in  its  primary  meaning,  give  any 
such  thought  as  the  terrible  captivity  under  which  man  is 
to  his  Adamic  nature,  or  to  Satan  through  it.  It  means 
rather,  and  literally,  under  watch  or  guard, — or  in  a  place 
of  safe-keeping.  In  its  very  use  is  implied  the  possibility  of 
release  from  it,  and  the  future  gift  of  liberty, — that  these 
souls  are  reserved  for  some  further  purpose.  It  has  a  con- 
demnatory sense  only  secondarily,  and  as  resulting  from 
human  conditions;  and  even  if  the  notion  of  blame  be  not 


394  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

excluded,  these  very  human  analogies  point  to  it  as  an  inter- 
mediate and  transitional  condition.  And  besides,  the  souls 
are  referred  to  as  nvevfxaai,  and  therefore  the  predication  is 
not  universal,  but  of  a  class. 

Still  another  objection  to  the  interpretation  under  consid- 
eration is  afforded  by  the  use  of  the  word  nopevdeU,  which 
means  literally,  having  journeyed  or  gone  somewhither, 
and  suggests  a  change  of  place  or  of  the  physical  relation, 
and  could  be  rightly  asserted  of  Christ  only  in  his  human 
nature  and  its  relations.  That  any  universal  and  purely 
Divine  relation  to  men,  made  particular  as  would  be  here  re- 
quired to  think,  is  expressed  by  such  a  word  as  nopsvdsls,  is 
out  of  all  analogy.  It  would  mean  that  the  Divine  omni- 
presence admitted  of  degrees.  Moreover,  a  participle  like 
this,  coming  in  after  the  participles  davaroodsk  and 
ZGD07rob}deis,  aorist  participles  expressing  time  relations, 
indicates  connection  between  them,  and  must  refer  to  events 
occurring  in  this  order,  and  therefore  must  also  indicate  the 
order  of  thought.  The  going  somewhither  is  subsequent  in 
thought  and  therefore  in  time  to  the  being  put  to  death 
and  being  quickened,  and  therefore  cannot  refer  to  any 
journey  gone  in  the  days  of  Noah. 

Let  it  be  remembered  that  the  topic  of  St.  Peter's  letter 
is  Jesus  Christ,  who  suffered  for  sins  and  left  us  an  example 
of  patient  endurance.  There  is  nothing  to  tempt  him  to 
speak  of  any  action  of  Christ  other  than  something  done 
during  the  process  of  his  redemptive  work.  It  was  He  who 
had  suffered  and  died  for  men,  yet  was  quickened,  who  also 
preached.  The  changes  in  his  human  relation  to  the  en- 
vironment are  indicated  by  these  participles.  The  preaching 
could  only  be  done  by  one  who  had  triumphed  over  death, 
and  had  his  human  nature  quickened  to  eternal  life,  so  that 
his  body  could  not  see  corruption,  but  held  within  it  the 
principle  of  his  glorification,  which  had  already  once  before 
shown  itself  on  the  mount  of  Transfiguration  ;  and  the  mat- 
ter of  his  preaching  must  have  been  the  news  of  himself. 
That  although  ZGoo7roiTjdek  He  is  not  yet  in  the  heavenly 


APPENDIX.  395 

state,  is  shown  by  this  word  nopsvdsh.  He  too  needed,  in 
carrying  out  the  Father's  purpose,  to  fulfil  the  entire  lot 
of  man  by  entering  sv  (pvXam/.  The  ordinary  human  rela- 
tion to  the  universe  has  been  changed  to  one  intermediate 
and  preparatory  to  the  final  one. 

But  the  strength  of  the  argument  for  the  interpretation 
we  defend  is  chiefly  derived  from  an  exact  and  sufficient 
signification  of  the  words  Gapni  and  7tv£vjuari.  To  deter- 
mine this  let  us  say,  that  there  seems  no  sufficient  reason  to 
think  that  St.  Peter  did  not  use  these  words  in  the  same 
sense  in  which  they  are  used  by  St.  Paul,  even  though  it 
may  not  be  thought  that  he  had  penetrated  as  deeply  into 
their  meaning.  With  St.  Paul  the  expression  aapB,  means 
the  natural  man,  the  common  nature  which  we  inherit, 
commencing  with  the  progenitor  of  the  race,  and  the  word 
7tvevjua  and  its  derivatives  expresses  the  regenerated  and 
spiritual  humanity,  commencing  in  Christ.  That  St.  Peter 
meant  no  more  than  the  distinction  between  body  and  soul 
would  show  that  he  was  not  familiar  with  St.  Paul's  thought 
and  expressions.  If  we  claim  unity  and  Divine  guidance  in 
the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  we  infer  agreement  in  the 
use  of  important  terms.  The  body  as  distinguished  from  the 
soul  is  not  in  these  books  called  aap^,  but  Gdopia.  The  only 
seeming  exception  to  this  is  found  in  Ephesians,  ch.  io, 
v.  29,  30,  where  we  find  the  word  66ojjia  indeed,  and  after- 
wards the  word  aapB,  used  in  the  phenomenal  sense  as  de- 
scriptive of  the  actual  ociojAa, — the  object  of  the  Apostle 
being  here  to  show  that  the  body  is  not  alien  and  indifferent 
to  man,  but  has  mystical  relations  within  his  entire  being, 
and  beyond  it.  Moreover,  the  merely  physical  lusts  do  not 
express  the  entirety  of  human  sinful  tendencies,  some  of 
which  are  rather  purely  mental,  and  only  as  they  are  all 
summed  up  in  one  expression  is  there  a  true  contrast  to  the 
pneumatic  tendency.  The  contrast  made  in  1  Peter  ch.  4, 
v.  6  requires  that  all  the  predications  of  the  carnal  nature 
shall  be  included  in  the  one  expression  oapi;. 

Again,  the  view  that  by  these  expressions  St.  Peter  meant 


396  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

merely  the  human  and  Divine  natures  in  Christ  is  manifestly 
untenable  ;  for  the  Divine  nature  as  such  does  not  admit  of 
any  quickening  ;  and  the  word  nvevpia,  when  used  of  any 
one  purely  Divine,  means  the  Holy  Spirit  only. 

There  is,  then,  here  no  real  contrast,  no  two  alternative 
tendencies  to  which  man  can  abandon  himself,  unless  ootpZ 
means  the  old  nature  with  its  solicitations,  and  7tv£vjua,  the 
regenerated  nature  with  its  propulsions ;  and  each  in  the 
whole  compass  of  its  relations.  It  is  stated  or  assumed, 
both  by  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul,  that  the  old  nature  is  incap- 
able of  self-restoration,  that  a  new  principle,  to  elevate  its 
life  to  a  higher  plane,  must  enter  it  and  reconstruct  it.  This 
Adamic  nature  Christ  shared  as  the  offspring  of  his  mother. 
Through  this  He  was  liable  to  temptation,  to  alien  solicita- 
tion. In  consequence  of  this  He  could  really  pass  through 
death.  The  life,  which  is  a  term  to  describe  the  energizing 
principle  of  the  complex  being  in  the  entire  synthesis  of  its 
structure,  does  not  and  cannot  maintain  itself  against  the 
hostile  forces.  But  He,  through  his  sacrificial  triumph  in 
death,  overcame  death,  and  lived  thenceforth  in  a  new 
human  life.  He  might  be  said  to  be  iv  ffapnl  up  to  the 
moment  of  his  death,  as  sharing  the  Adamic  nature,  and 
enduring  the  consequences  of  the  ethical  defection.  But  in 
dying,  He  was  6ap£i  no  longer,  and  another  word  is  used  to 
express  the  liberated  and  regenerated  human  nature, 
Ttvev^a,  a  fitting  word  since  it  shows  that  the  abnormal 
relation  of  the  spiritual  soul  to  the  material  universe  had 
been  reversed.  By  his  death  his  body  even  was  liberated 
from  the  possibility  of  corruption,  and  underwent  an  essen- 
tial change  in  its  relation  to  the  world  He  had  left  behind, 
so  that  it  could  be  called  "  spiritual."  While  it  was  recog- 
nizable, as  bearing  the  marks  of  its  previous  history,  yet  it  was 
so  changed  as  to  be  not  immediately  recognizable,  perhaps 
was  recognizable  only  at  his  will.  But  the  word  nvEv^xa  is 
used  to  express  the  regenerated  human  nature  in  its  entirety, 
and  while  his  body  may  now  be  called  a  "  spiritual  body," 
his  soul  may  be  called  spirit,  or  a  spirit. 


APPENDIX.  397 

We  find,  too,  that  this  same  word  is  used  to  express  the 
same  regenerated  human  nature  when  imparted  to  others. 
Its  unity  or  identity,  as  belonging  to  them  as  well  as  to 
him,  its  source,  is  implied  even  though  the  regenerative 
process  be  incomplete,  as  it  will  be  till  the  final  resurrection. 
It  is  still  used  to  express  the  highest  mode  of  life,  and  its 
mystical  principle  is  called  eternal  life.  Thus  the  word  has 
some  elasticity  of  meaning,  and  may  be  used  even  of  those 
who  are  morally  and  religiously  fit  for  the  mystical  regenera- 
tive process  to  commence. 

Christ  alone  is  absolutely  and  completely  pneumatical. 
They  that  are  his  will  be  completely  such,  and  are  now 
potentially  such,  as  undergoing  the  regenerative  process. 
They  will  be  "  like  him."  Yet  He  might  be  called  pneu- 
matical before  his  death,  as  possessing  the  sacrificial  mind 
that  in  its  perfection  should  in  his  death  triumph  over  all 
hostility,  and  instate  him  as  human  in  the  normal  or  ideal 
relation  to  the  universe.  So  his  disciples  may  be  called 
pneumatical,  as  possessing  the  same  sacrificial  mind,  and 
hence  the  requisites,  moral  and  religious,  for  the  gift  of  the 
new  life-principle.  Thus  St.  John's  words,  seemingly 
contradictory,  are  not  really  so — that  we  do  commit  sin, 
and  that  we  cannot  commit  sin.  Both  declarations  are 
true,  the  one  concretely  of  the  Gacpi;,  the  other  abstractly 
of  the  nvEVfia.  So  Cornelius  could  not  be  said  to  be  pneu- 
matical in  the  fullest  sense  until  after  his  baptism,  yet  might 
be  said  to  be  so  in  a  sense  less  complete,  as  having  the  moral 
and  religious  conditions  for  regeneration. 

Strictly  speaking,  indeed,  one  could  not  be  regenerated 
and  belong  to  the  new  human  stock  till  the  progenitor  of 
that  stock  should  have  reached  his  human  perfection.  Yet 
the  subjective  conditions  for  the  objective  gift  and  process 
may  exist  before  or  apart,  i.  e.,  before  the  Incarnation,  and 
even  without  the  knowledge  of  it.  The  pre-requisite  condi- 
tion may  exist  upon  which  the  regenerating  principle,  when 
afforded,  may  lay  hold  ;  and  this  so  far  as  to  make  it  in  the 
Divine  regard  certain  that  the  religious  deficiency  (for  there 


398  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

must  be  such  till  the  full  revelation  of  God's  love  in  Christ 
is  given)  will  be  supplemented  when  that  knowledge  is 
imparted.  All  this  it  is  needful  to  think  in  order  to  warrant 
the  high  estimation  expressed  in  the  New  Testament  for 
the  Old-Testament  saints.  These  had  reached  very  far 
towards  the  summit  of  religious  attainment  possible  before 
Christ  came  ;  yet  these,  too,  must  be  saved  by  Christ,  and 
not  without  the  knowledge  of  him.  Not  till  this  knowledge 
is  given  is  the  deepest  spring  in  the  human  being  reached 
and  unloosed,  which  alone  has  force  to  elicit  all  of  which  he 
is  capable,  and  to  make  it  blossom  into  its  full  beauty.  Not 
till  then  is  he  fitted  for  the  correspondent  changes,  physical 
and  mental,  which  will  ensue  at  the  general  resurrection. 

The  nvBv^arinoi,  therefore,  are  such  in  differing  degrees, 
and  by  new  increments.  In  a  descending  scale :  (i)  those 
who  have  the  sacrificial  mind  and  the  regenerating  principle 
in  absolute  possession  and  full  activity  ;  (2)  those  who  pos- 
sess the  one  rudimentally  and  the  other  in  potentia  (as 
infants)  ;  and  (3)  those  who  have  the  ethical  and  religious 
pre-requisites  in  any  stage  of  development,  after  their  moral 
probation  (which  is  implicitly  also  a  religious  one)  is  suc- 
cessfully passed. 

Jesus  Christ  then  could,  sv  Gapm  suffer  death,  yet  bv 
7trevfxari  could  be  liberated  from  all  physical  trammels  and 
impediments,  and  humanly  receive  an  accession  or  eleva- 
tion of  life.  He  is  ^Goo7iob]6aU,  made  living,  whose  body  is 
secure  from  corruption,  and  also  freed  from  its  present 
limitations,  who  is  not  tied  to  it  as  an  aggregation  of 
material  particles,  but  finds  all  these,  or  whatever  consti- 
tutes them,  fluent  and  subservient ;  and  who  is  free  and  not 
bound  by  spatial  or  any  other  limitations  in  his  intercourse 
with  spiritual  souls.  The  very  freedom  thus  implicit  in  the 
notion  of  the  ^ooonoirjdsl?  is  explicity  expressed  in  the 
7topevdels.  Human  nature  before  its  ideal  perfection,  which 
includes  physical  emancipation,  or  bodily  glorification,  is 
not  normally  possessed  of  any  such  freedom  and  power,  but 
only  transiently  possesses  it,  or  is  permitted  to  use  it.     Om- 


APPENDIX.  399 

nipotence  cannot  be  unless  there  is  omniscience  as  well.  Even 
Jesus  Christ,  the  incarnate  Son  of  God,  did  not  play  fast  and 
loose  with  the  human  nature  which  He  assumed,  but  adhered 
to  the  conditions  of  its  development.  What  He  did  while 
in  the  body  was  possible  for  ideal  human  nature  thus  far 
developed  ;  and  He  did  nothing  that  is  not  possible  for 
human  nature  when  perfected  and  glorified.  The  nopevdeis, 
therefore,  was  not  possible  for  him  till  after  his  death.  He 
did  not,  and  could  not,  without  contradicting  the  intent  of 
the  Incarnation  itself,  abandon  his  body,  i.  e.,  anticipate  the 
final  set  of  relations  to  the  physical  universe,  or  even  the 
intermediate  ones, — till  after  his  triumph  on  the  cross.  He 
could  and  did  thereafter  appear  in  the  body  to  his  own  again, 
and  thus  showed  himself  as  master  of  either  set  of  relations, 
free  in  a  sense  in  which  we  are  not  yet  free. 

This  nopsvdek,  then,  does  not  mean  any  passage  through 
space.  That  is  only  a  figure,  adapting  the  thought  to  com- 
mon human  intelligence  through  imagination.  What  is 
meant  is  that  Jesus,  after  the  pneumatic  quickening,  was 
free  and  able  to  assume  either  set  of  relations,  that  of  de- 
parted souls  to  each  other,  or  that  of  glorified  bodies  so  far 
as  they  can  be  brought  before  the  consciousness  of  those 
existing  as  bodies  not  yet  fully  glorified  ;  and  that  He  did 
assume  the  former  relation.  The  ixripv^ev,  therefore,  must 
refer  to  some  preaching  done  in  the  intermediate  state,  and 
availed  itself  of  these  relations.  That  the  descent  of  the 
Eternal  Son  from  heaven,  which  means  the  assumption  of  a 
provisional  human  form  (if  this  be  the  meaning  of  the  Theoph- 
anies),  in  order  to  preach  in  the  time  of  Noah,  is  here  meant 
is  a  conclusion  without  authority  from  the  narrative  of 
Noah's  life,  and  cannot  be  thought  to  be  meant  by  the  word 
7top€vdete  without  greater  warrant  than  appears. 

In  the  passage  in  the  third  chapter  of  the  epistle  the 
contrast  in  St.  Peter's  mind  is  between  the  preaching  of 
Christ  and  the  former  unsuccessful  preaching  of  Noah  to  the 
souls  whom  he  addressed  while  the  ark  was  preparing.  For 
this  reason  the  word  SKtjpv^Ev,  and  not  evr/y-yskiadT],  is  used, 


400  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

the  word  descriptive  of  all  preaching,  the  common  element 
of  both.  A  more  particular  characterization  is  given  of 
Christ's  preaching,  in  the  fourth  chapter,  by  the  use  of  the 
word  avtiyyeXiGdri,  where  quite  another  contrast  was  in  his 
mind.  Here  we  are  reminded  that  what  was  preached 
venpoTs  was  the  gospel, — not,  as  before,  the  simple  appeal  to 
belief  in  the  Divine  threatening,  but  the  full  news  of  God's 
Love,  and  of  the  plan  of  redemption.  Here  we  have  no 
right,  without  unmistakable  warrant,  to  take  the  word 
vexpoi?  in  other  than  its  primitive  and  natural  sense. 
Wherever  the  word  translated  "  dead  "  or  "  death  "  has  a 
figurative  meaning  in  Holy  Scripture,  it  is  indicated  by  the 
context,  or  the  qualifying  words.  Besides,  the  word  "  death," 
even  when  figuratively  used,  is  never  without  discoverable 
reference  to  natural  death.  "  Dead  in  trespasses  and  sins  " 
means  that  in  consequence  of  these  trespasses  and  sins  man's 
life  cannot  maintain  itself  against  the  hostile  forces,  as  it 
can  when  he  becomes  freed  from  sin  and  perfected.  Death 
always  indicates  an  abnormal  and  faulty  relation  to  the 
physical  universe,  brought  about  by  the  primitive  transgres- 
sion, through  which  it  entered  and  took  humanity  captive. 
While  life,  in  its  highest  sense,  or  absolute  definition,  eternal 
life,  means  something  other  than  continued  existence,  or  an 
abstract  relation,  or  a  faultless  ethical  and  religious  state, 
and  includes  the  normal  or  ideal  relation  of  the  soul  to  the 
physical  universe,  freedom  from  its  limitations,  and  domina- 
tion over  it. 

It  is  doing  violence  to  language,  and  a  most  jejune  mean- 
ing, to  make  the  passage  to  declare  simply  that  some  to 
whom  the  gospel  was  preached  had  since  died,  for  there 
appears  no  reason  to  make  any  distinction  between  them 
and  those  still  surviving. 

But  now  comes  up  the  question  which  has  made  most  of 
the  difficulty  and  uncertainty  :  Why  is  the  preaching  to  the 
dead  limited  to  the  particular  ones  faithless  in  the  time  of 
Noah  ?  In  reply  to  this  it  has  been  said  that  the  limited 
preaching  referred  to  does  not  necessarily  exclude  other,  or 


APPENDIX.  401 

a  general  preaching  to  the  departed.  This  conclusion  was 
naively  reached  by  many  of  the  early  Christian  writers,  yet 
it  has  no  scriptural,  but  only  speculative  warrant,  thus : — if 
souls  after  death  are  conscious,  and  can  communicate  with 
each  other,  it  seems  impossible  not  to  think  that  the  news 
of  Christ  may  or  must  reach  them,  unless  by  the  Divine 
Providence  special  impediments  are  put  in  the  way  of  it. 
To  think  the  latter  true,  makes  the  condition  of  the  de- 
parted, so  far  as  we  can  see,  meaningless  and  unprogressive, 
and  that  the  most  powerful  spring  of  their  development  to 
perfection  is  denied  them,  or  is  postponed  ; — which  latter 
alternative  has  no  ground  of  preference,  and  solves  no  diffi- 
culties, but  brings  new  ones.  Besides,  we  cannot  recon- 
cile this  withholding  of  knowledge  with  Jesus'  own  saying, 
"  And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up,  will  draw  all  men  to  me," — not  to 
insist  likewise  that  the  notion  changes  our  estimate  of  the 
Divine  character,  lowers  our  conception  of  the  Divine  idea 
for  the  human  being,  and  hence  weakens  the  profoundest 
foundation  of  our  faith. 

But  though  this  may  be  a  speculative  conclusion  that  we 
cannot  avoid,  there  is  no  mention  made  in  Scripture  of  any 
such  universal  preaching  to  the  departed,  or  even  of  a 
preaching  to  the  nvsv^ariKoi,  but  only  to  those  described 
as  7trevjuaffi  now  sv  cpvXaKr/.  Yet  we  may  argue  that  if  by 
the  7tvsv jaoctikoi  be  meant  those  who  have  undergone  their 
probation,  and  made  the  right  moral  and  religious  choice, 
these  still  need  the  news  of  Christ  and  the  fuller  knowledge 
of  the  Divine  mind,  and  the  completest  loving  response  to 
the  Divine  Love,  in  order  to  receive  the  everlasting  impulse 
upward  in  the  scale  of  being.  This  conclusion  is  counte- 
nanced by  the  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  when  of 
the  old  saints  he  says :  "  They,  without  us  cannot  be  made 
perfect,"  in  which  is  recognized  the  unity  of  the  entire 
organism  of  the  redeemed,  and  that  they  are  to  be  perfected 
not  as  individuals,  but  as  members  of  the  same.  And  among 
these  7rv£vfxariK0i  may  or  must  be  included  many  whom, 
with  our  untrustworthy  judgments,  we  might  think  to  be 


402  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

excluded,  but  that  we  are  warned  against  such  confidence 
by  this  declaration  of  St.  Peter.  These  faithless  ones  in 
Noah's  time,  although  they  have  not  escaped  the  severity  of 
human  judgments,  yet  in  God's  knowledge  had  not  extin- 
guished their  faith  as  a  religious  principle,  though  it  may 
have  succumbed  at  this  particular  emergency,  and  were 
judged  by  him  to  be  indeed  living.  These  are  not  relegated 
to  the  common  category  of  human  souls,  and  spoken  of  as 
tpvxal?,  but  are  characterized  as  nvtvjxaGi,  and  by  the  use  of 
this  word  fellowship  is  claimed  for  them  in  some  respect  and 
degree  with  the  ev  7tvsvj.iari  in  which  Christ  preached.  Thus 
the  passage  shows  that  the  preaching  of  Christ  was  not  to 
prove  them,  for  their  probation  was  passed,  or  they  could 
not  be  included  in  this  term,  but  to  supplement  their 
knowledge,  and  start  them  towards  their  perfection.  Thus 
the  passage  furnishes  no  support  for  the  notion  of  probation 
after  death. 

This  view  is  strengthened  also  by  the  use  of  the  temporal 
adverb  nors.  At  one  time  they  were  faithless,  viz. :  while 
the  ark  was  preparing, — leaving  the  inference  open  that 
faith  was  not  extinct,  but  might  grow  to  its  utmost  before  a 
more  illuminating  preaching. 

And  now  to  the  question,  why  is  the  reference  to  these 
particular  ones  only  ?  there  emerges  a  sufficient  answer. 

It  is  apparent  from  the  reading  of  the  previous  part  of  the 
epistle,  that  St.  Peter's  mind  had  been  dwelling  upon  the 
sacrificial  mind  of  Christ  as  shown  in  his  suffering  and  death, 
— upon  its  redemptive  or  liberating  power,  and  also  as 
furnishing  a  pattern  for  similar  endurance  on  the  part  of  his 
followers.  This  sacrificial  mind,  which  led  to  his  being  put 
to  death,  is  rewarded  or  rather  inevitably  followed  by  an 
accession  or  elevation  of  life.  St.  Peter's  mind  would 
naturally  glance  from  this  thought  in  several  directions,  one 
towards  the  mode  of  Christ's  being  in  the  interval  before  his 
resurrection, — one  towards  the  effect  of  his  sacrifice  upon  his 
physical  being,  viz. :  to  the  resurrection  itself, — and  one  tow- 
ards the  power  and  effect  of  the  knowledge  of  this  sacrifice 

Vol.  II. 


APPENDIX.  403 

upon  man's  moral  and  religious  being.  These  thoughts 
rush  together  and  the  expression  of  them  is  intermingled. 
In  the  latter  direction  lies  the  knowledge  and  the  feeling 
that  henceforth  there  is  a  new  force  in  the  world.  Now  the 
power  of  the  preaching  of  Christ  crucified  can  be  felt.  St. 
Peter  had  had  experience  of  the  power  of  this  preaching 
on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  when  thousands  confessed  Christ 
before  men.  That  he  should  have  mentally  contrasted  this 
preaching  of  the  gospel  with  all  former  preaching  of 
righteousness  was  natural  and  inevitable,  and  it  was  neither 
unnatural  nor  unlikely  that  there  should  have  come  into  his 
mind  the  preaching  done  by  Noah,  rather  almost  unavoidable. 
The  situations  were  not  dissimilar,  but  in  St.  Peter's  thought 
greatly  alike.  Evidently  he  was  accustomed  to  dwell  much 
upon  this  crisis  in  the  ancient  history.  He  alludes  to  it 
again  in  his  second  epistle,  and  dwells  upon  the  resemblances. 
That  was  a  very  remarkable  emergency.  The  world,  so  far 
as  St.  Peter  knew  of  it,  was  threatened  with  overflow,  and 
those  of  its  inhabitants,  of  whom  he  had  heard,  with  destruc- 
tion, yet  when  a  righteous  man  like  Noah  endeavored  to  warn 
men  to  avoid  a  danger  that  did  not  to  them  seem,  phenome- 
nally judging,  probable,  on  the  ground  of  their  religious 
faith  alone,  he  was  met  by  incredulity,  and  found  but  eight 
believing  souls,  and  them  his  own  family.  St.  Peter  thinks 
that  a  similar  emergency  has  arrived  now,  that  the  final  day 
is  or  may  be  near  at  hand.  While  mistaken  in  this  respect, 
it  is  true  still  that  such  an  event  is  to  occur,  and  should  be 
kept  in  mind.  In  the  second  epistle  he  notes  the  physical 
resemblances  that  are  to  be,  the  overflow  by  fire,  instead  of 
water, — the  suddenness  of  the  tempest  in  either  case.  In 
view  of  such  an  event  he  thinks  that  the  men  of  his  time 
should  hasten  their  repentance.  He  warns  them  more  than 
once  to  live  in  expectation  of  its  possible  arrival,  and  in 
view  of  that,  advises  them  not  to  mind  the  deprivations  and 
sufferings  that  might  come  to  them  in  the  intervening  time, 
and  that  not  only  for  this  prudential  reason,  but  for  the 
higher  one,  in  order  to  imitate  Christ,  whose  example  he 


404  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

adduces.  There  springs  up  in  his  mind  the  contrast  between 
Noah's  preaching,  and  the  preaching  which  now  may  be. 
He  emphasises  the  fewness  of  the  saved  in  the  former  case, 
and  the  multitude  saved  in  the  latter.  That  this  was  Noah's 
own  warning  under  the.impulse  of  the  Divine  communication 
which  caused  him  to  prepare  the  ark,  and  not  any  exceptional 
communication  with  men  by  the  Divine  Logos  through 
Noah's  instrumentality,  is  indicated  by  the  after  allusion  to 
him  as  "  a  preacher  of  righteousness."  Had  the  Divine 
Logos  as  such  been  the  preacher  in  any  sense  higher  than 
the  ordinary  preaching  of  any  righteous  servant  of  God,  we 
can  hardly  think  it  would  have  been  received  with  faithless- 
ness. All  the  Theophanies  were  to  believing  ones  and  ac- 
complished their  intended  result ;  while  here  the  Theophany, 
if  such,  was  a  failure. 

But  St.  Peter  is  thinking  that  Noah's  preaching  was  disre- 
garded. We  have  no  means  of  judging  of  the  amount  of 
moral  blame  to  be  attached  to  his  faithless  auditors.  It  is 
easier  to  think  it  very  little  and  excusable,  than  very  great 
and  unpardonable,  since  these  men  thought,  as  men  have 
since,  that  "  all  things  continue  as  they  were  from  the 
beginning  of  creation."  Surely  at  no  period  of  the  world's 
history  is  there  sufficient  ground  for  thinking  that  among 
the  numbers  constituting  its  population,  or  that  of  any  con- 
siderable portion  of  it,  only  eight  were  morally  good,  and 
had  the  principle  of  faith.  That  the  faith  of  Noah  and  his 
family  and  the  faithlessness  of  others  made  a  sharp  dividing 
line  among  the  inhabitants  of  the  region  which  Noah  was 
able  to  reach,  and  that  all  these  last  had  failed  to  bear 
rightly  their  moral  probation,  is  a  proposition  so  sweeping 
that  we  may  well  recoil  from  it.  The  message  of  warning 
by  him  does  not  seem  to  have  been  so  much  an  appeal  to 
their  moral  and  religious  convictions  as  to  their  prudence. 
St.  Peter  advises  more  prudence  on  the  part  of  the  Christian 
brethren,  as  well  as  appeals  to  higher  motives.  The  motive 
Noah  appealed  to  was  fear,  and  this  is  insufficient  to  move 
men  in  the  depths  of  their  being.     Not  all  those  who  fell 


APPENDIX.  405 

short  of  Noah's  believing  disposition  can  be  thought  to  have 
been  utterly  bad,  or  that  they  would  have  resisted  preach- 
ing of  a  higher  kind,  when  the  motive  of  grateful  love  is 
appealed  to. 

This  preaching  by  Noah,  so  ineffectual  in  the  face  of  the 
threatening  emergency,  is  contrasted  by  St.  Peter  with 
Christian  preaching,  in  which  we  may  be  sure  that,  coming 
from  his  mouth,  the  similar  threatening  emergency  was  not 
forgotten.  But  the  faithless  antediluvians  are  still  in  his 
mind,  and  he  thinks  what  the  results  of  Christian  preaching 
would  be  upon  them.  If  they  had  borne  their  probation 
rightly,  and  could  be  reckoned  among  the  nvevpiaffi,  or  some 
of  them,  at  least,  what  they  needed  was  what  all  need 
who  meet  their  probation  rightly  here  on  earth,  make  the 
right  moral  choice,  commit  themselves  to  the  principle  of 
good,  according  to  their  intelligence,  more  or  less  right  or 
wrong,  of  what  it  requires,  whereby  this  is  also  implicitly  a 
religious  relation,  and  the  personal  bond  exists,  though  they 
may  be  only  obscurely  conscious  of  it, — viz. :  the  fuller 
revelation  of  God,  of  the  Divine  heart,  which  alone  can 
furnish  the  eternal  motive-spring,  set  the  key  of  their  obedi- 
ence higher,  and  bring  out  all  their  capacities  for  elevation. 
That  St.  Peter  regarded  some  who  listened  to  the  preaching 
of  Noah  as  belonging  to  this  class  is  shown  by  his  calling 
them  nvevpiaai  and  not  ipvxaiZ,  as  the  eight  saved  in  the 
ark  were  still  called  ;  and  he  is  inwardly  moved  to  throw 
this  gleam  of  light  upon  this  question  so  interesting  to  man, 
and  to  tell  us  that  the  good  news  of  Christ  was  given  to 
these.  Further  than  this  he  is  not  permitted  to  go,  if 
indeed  he  had  further  insight,  and  we  know  not  from  him 
here,  whether  any  others  were  included  in  this  preaching, 
yet  there  is  nothing  here  to  forbid  our  further  hopeful 
inference.  Knowing  that  Jesus  passed  through  the  entire 
career  of  humanity,  and  shared  for  a  time  the  safe-keeping 
of  Hades,  and  was  with  the  penitent  malefactor  in  Paradise, 
and  therefore  could  in  his  pneumatic  state  enter  into  com- 
munication with  such,  he   contrasts  the  effect  of   Christ's 


4o6  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

impartation  of  the  knowledge  of  himself  with  that  produced 
by  Noah's  exhortation  to  these  pneumatic  souls.  The  two 
preachings, — of  righteousness  then, — of  the  Gospel  now, — 
associate  themselves  together  in  his  mind.  He  notes  all  the 
analogies,  and  regards  one  typical  of  the  other.  Each 
took  place  in  anticipation  of  a  crisis.  There  was  peril  in 
disregarding  the  danger  then,  there  may  be  peril  in  disre- 
garding it  now.  The  patient  endurance  of  God  waited  then, 
the  patient  endurance  of  God  waits  now  ;  but  the  time  is 
coming  when  it  will  wait  no  longer.  The  few  then  saved 
from  destruction  were  saved  through  the  instrumentality  of 
water.  The  many  now  saved  are  lifted  from  peril  by  similar 
instrumentality.  Yet  there  is  interjected  in  his  mind  the 
difference  between  the  two,  showing  that  the  analogy  must 
not  be  pressed  too  far ;  the  one  being  a  merely  physical 
salvation  through  physical  agencies  ;  the  other  a  religious 
salvation  through  agencies  moral  and  religious. 

If  one  will  read  carefully  these  two  epistles  of  St.  Peter 
he  may  be  led  to  notice  that  the  law  of  association  with  him 
is  what  may  be  called  analogical,  rather  than  logical.  It  is 
not  what  we  should  call  consecutive  thinking,  and  contrasts 
markedly  with  the  method  of  statement  of  St.  Paul,  or  of 
St.  John,  or  of  Jesus  himself.  He  flits  from  topic  to  topic, 
as  does  an  unpractised  writer,  led  by  resemblances  more  or 
less  superficial,  to  which  his  mind  strongly  leans,  and  in  what 
seem  digressions,  yet  does  not  lose  the  logical  thread 
entirely,  and  ever  returns  to  the  favorite  or  immediate  topic. 

This  is  characteristic  of  a  whole  class  of  human  minds, 
which  differ  in  power  and  grasp  according  to  the  superficial 
or  profound  impressions  which  cling  together  through 
association,  or  as  they  have  been  addressed  to  the  under- 
standing,  or  to  the  imagination.  It  describes,  we  may 
say,  the  purely  poetic  temperament,  or  co-ordinating 
impulse,  when  it  is  not  also,  joined  with  the  philosophic 
temperament,  which  co-ordinates  ideas  rather  than  symbols 
or  images.  If  we  look  about  among  the  men  we  know,  we 
may  easily  classify   them    in    this   regard.     Were   this  the 


APPENDIX.  407 

place,  many  interesting  illustrations  might  be  drawn  from 
the  dramatic  poems  of  Shakespeare,  showing  in  many  char- 
acters how  each  had  his  own  distinctive  law  of  association. 

This  characteristic  of  St.  Peter's  mind  is  sufficient  to 
account  for  the  peculiarities  of  his  epistles,  and  helps  to 
the  right  understanding  of  the  passages  we  treat  of.  The 
thoughts  which  he  feels  so  vividly  are  presented  irregularly, 
and  in  an  intermingled  and  seemingly  confused  presentation, 
— the  coming  judgment,  the  importance  of  making  ready 
for  it,  the  slight  importance  to  be  attached  to  the  interven- 
ing suffering,  the  sufferings  of  Christ  as  an  example  to 
follow  in  patient  endurance,  the  atoning  virtue  of  that 
sacrificial  suffering,  its  results  in  quickening  Jesus  himself 
and  all  those  who  present  the  moral  and  religious  condi- 
tions for  such  quickening,  the  extent  of  its  reach,  and  that 
it  affects  even  the  souls  departed,  hence  the  universality  of 
the  redemptive  work  in  its  possible  effect,  the  power  of 
Christian  preaching  as  contrasted  with  all  other  preaching, 
the  similarity  of  the  two  emergencies,  even  the  minute 
and  superficial  resemblances,  as  the  rescue  in  either  case 
through  water,  and  that  the  final  destruction  will  also  be 
by  an  overflow.  All  these  thoughts  are  not  presented  as  a 
practised  writer  of  logical  mind  and  with  an  argumentative 
purpose  would  present  them,  but  as  one  with  an  immediate 
practical  purpose,  and  warmed  by  strong  emotion,  and  unac- 
customed to  rein  in  imagination  by  severe  thought-require- 
ments, would  present  them.  They  follow  each  other  loosely, 
and  are  uttered  according  to  the  present  attraction  of  each. 
And  yet,  placed  in  logical  consecution,  the  thought  is  clear, 
and  at  every  point  harmonizes  with  the  thought  of  St. 
Paul  and  the  other  New-Testament  writers. 

What  has  been  the  troublesome  difficulty  in  the  way  of 
interpreting  this  passage  as  was  done  by  the  early  Scripture 
writers,  is  now  diminished  or  removed. 

The  instruction  then  to  be  drawn  from  this  passage,  rec- 
oncilable with  and  confirmatory  of  what  has  been  reached, 
through  other  pathways,  in  the  body  of  this  treatise,  is 


408  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

this  :  All  souls  departed  from  the  earthly  mode  of  existence 
are  ev  cpvXaia},  in  safe  and  watchful  keeping, — all  the  pneu- 
matic ones  included.  The  pneumatic  ones  are  they  in 
whom  the  inherited  disorder  of  humanity  has  begun  to  be 
cured,  who  have  borne  rightly  their  earthly  probation,  and 
commenced  their  upward  career,  though  they  be  at  different 
points  on  the  way,  and  though  there  be  only  one  at  the 
summit,  Jesus  Christ  himself.  These  can  only  receive  the 
impulse  which  will  carry  them  up  to  be  beside  him,  to  "  sit 
on  twelve  thrones  "  with  him,  by  having  supplied  to  them 
the  revelation  of  God's  innermost,  the  Divine  heart,  shown 
in  Jesus  Christ  and  him  crucified.  This  only  reaches  the 
deepest  abyss  of  human  nature,  and  enables  it  to  rise  with 
elastic  force  and  cleave  the  eternities,  and  master  all  the 
lower  powers.  All  this  is  conditioned,  of  course,  by  the 
correspondent  and  mystically  regenerating  activity  and 
influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  as  we  have  shown  at  length. 
Let  no  one  think,  St.  Peter  would  seem  to  have  said  to  him- 
self, that  the  well-known  saints  of  old  will  not  share  this 
knowledge  and  this  upward  movement.  Let  none  think 
that  they  know  of  all  who  will  share  it,  or  even  that  all  the 
faithless  ones  in  the  time  of  Noah  were  hopelessly  disobedi- 
ent. Jesus  made  himself  and  his  loving  work  known  to 
those  of  them  who  werepneumatical,  not  to  condemn  them, 
but  to  supply  what  was  needful  for  their  inward  symmetri- 
zation  and  their  resultant  perfection.  Whether  he  did  so  to 
others  than  these,  I  am  not  permitted  to  say,  or  I  do  not 
think  it  wise  to  say,  or — I  do  not  know. 

That  such  was  the  thought  of  St.  Peter  in  this  passage 
from  the  third  chapter  of  his  epistle  is  rendered  still  more 
probable  by  what  follows  in  the  fourth  chapter,  in  which  he 
endeavors  to  correct  the  rash  and  superficial  judgment  that 
might  be  made,  or  had  been  made,  as  to  the  character  of 
these  same  souls.  Here,  in  verse  5,  allusion  has  been  made 
to  the  final  judgment,  which  will  bring  condemnation  to 
those  who  have  lived  according  to  the  impulses  of  the  carnal 
nature.     "  Who  shall  give  account  to  him  that  is  ready  to 


APPENDIX.  409 

judge  the  quick  and  the  dead."  By  "  the  quick  "  here  is 
meant  the  generation  living  at  the  time  of  the  final  judg- 
ment ;  by  "  the  dead,"  those  who  had  indeed  died.  There- 
fore, in  the  verse  which  follows  must  be  meant  the  same. 
The  apostle  does  not  at  once  desert,  and  has  no  occasion  to 
desert,  the  literal  for  a  figurative  meaning  of  the  word. 
And  that  any  assertion  so  needless  as  that  the  gospel  had 
been  preached  to  some  who  had  since  died,  is  not  to  be 
thought,  since  there  could  be  no  distinction  made  in  human 
and  Divine  judgments  between  them  any  more  than  between 
the  living.  Human  superficial  estimation  of  character  may 
mistake  equally  in  the  case  of  all  Christian  people,  whether 
dead  or  living.  But  as  to  the  character  and  the  destiny  of 
these  incredulous  7tvev/uaTa  in  the  time  of  Noah,  mistake  is 
likely,  St.  Peter  thinks,  and  has  been  made,  and  so  he  warns 
against  rash  human  judgments.  In  the  great  day  of  account 
a  deeper  and  truer  criterion  of  their  absolute  worth  will  be 
afforded.  Man's  judgment  from  his  carnal  standpoint  and 
methods  will  give  place  to  that  of  the  All-seeing  One,  who 
will  bring  out  all  secrets,  detect  and  make  known  the  inmost 
and  real  character  and  capacity  of  every  human  soul,  and 
find  and  show  many  to  be  living,  not  so  regarded  in  the 
untrustworthy  human  estimation,  but  rashly  misjudged 
and  condemned.  Otherwheres  St.  Peter  reminds  his  read- 
ers that  human  judgments  are  often  reversed  by  Divine 
judgments.  The  Gentiles  misjudge  you  Christians  now,  he 
says,  and  think  you  foolish  for  not  making  the  most  of  life 
while  you  can,  but  God's  estimation  of  your  self-denial  is 
quite  other,  and  changes  that  of  these  Gentiles  not  only 
concerning  you,  but  that  concerning  themselves.  Such 
reversal  of  human  judgments  will  take  place  concerning  the 
dead  as  well  as  of  the  living.  These  unbelieving  ones,  who 
turned  a  deaf  ear  to  Noah,  as  well  as  other  seemingly  faith- 
less ones  who  have  finished  their  earthly  career,  are  by  men 
adjudged  as  belonging  still  to  the  6apS,,  but  in  reality  are 
by  God  known  to  belong  to  the  7tvsvfAaTiKOi,  and  are  indeed 
living  in  a  high  and  true  sense.     While  in  the  earthly  state 


410  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

one  estimation  of  them  was  possible,  and  the  same  is  now 
possible  ;  but  since  the  gospel  has  been  preached  to  them, 
that  judgment  may  prove  to  have  been  untrue.  They  were 
indeed  ev  7tvev}xariy  and  are  living  as  all  righteous  souls  are 
living. 

But  there  is  another  meaning  that  may  be  given  to  this 
passage,  equally  obvious,  and  at  first  regard  more  immedi- 
ately obvious,  viz.  :  The  Gentiles  misjudge  you  Christian 
believers,  and  think  you  foolish.  So  they  think  foolish  and 
misjudge  the  self-denying  departed  ones,  who  have  missed 
needlessly  all  the  good  things  of  this  life  ;  but,  in  the  Divine 
regard,  these  took  the  wise  part.  The  Gentiles  judged  them 
according  to  the  carnal  standard,  ffapxl.  God  knows  them 
according  to  another  standard,  nvev^ari.  This  is  a  common 
interpretation,  and  seems  natural  and  simple.  It  might  be 
adopted  and  no  connection  claimed  between  this  declaration 
and  the  utterances  not  long  before  made,  were  it  not  that 
thereby  an  insufficient  meaning  has  to  be  given  to  the 
ek  tovto  ("  for  this  cause,"  "  unto  this  end,"  as  the  versions 
have  it).  Can  it  be  that  the  end  or  purpose  of  the  preaching 
of  the  gospel  is  or  was  simply  to  illustrate  the  contrariety  of 
human  and  Divine  judgments?  If  so,  there  was  no  need  of 
limiting  the  application  to  the  dead,  for  the  contrast  of  the 
judgments  is  no  more  emphatic  in  their  case  than  in  that  of 
the  living.  Besides,  in  the  latter  clause  of  the  sentence,  the 
word  nvevf-ian  qualifies  the  Cgogi,  not  the  xara  dsov.  The 
addition  of  nvevjuan  to  deov,  as  qualifying  it,  is  without 
meaning  or  precedent.  Therefore,  if  the  word  nvevjxari 
qualifies  the  ZgoGi,  the  word  Gapxi  does  not  qualify  the 
avdpd57rovS,  but  the  xpiddbffi.  It  is  not  then  the  contrast 
that  men  judge  ev  ffapxl,  and  that  God  judges  ev  nvevfiariy 
but  rather  that  these  dead  ones  were  or  are  judged  by  men 
as  belonging  to  the  carnal,  but  by  God  as  belonging  to  the 
pneumatical.  The  Gentiles  did  not  make  the  distinction 
between  the  carnal  and  the  spiritual,  nor  does  St.  Peter  say 
they  did.  They  simply  thought  the  conduct  of  the  fol- 
lowers of  Christ  strange  according  to  their  standard,  and 


APPENDIX.  411 

wondered  at  their  folly.  Therefore  the  contrast  made  by 
Gapnl  and  nvsvpiari  was  not  made  by  them,  nor  by  God  only 
(if  at  all,  here  said),  for  it  is  not  said  that  they  were  judged 
by  him,  but  that  they  lived  through  him  {Kara),  or  in  accord- 
ance with  his  mind,  and  by  means  of  what  He  had  done  for 
them.  But  they  were  esteemed  by  men  in  general  according 
to  the  methods  and  monitions  of  their  Adamic  nature,  of 
the  GapB,.  They  lived  indeed  7tvsvjj.arif  but  were  thought 
to  be  entirely  and  only  ffapm.  It  was  not  perceived  or 
known  that  they  had  any  right  to  have  a  higher  life  predi- 
cated of  them.  In  order  that  this  might  be  life  indeed, 
assured  and  perfect,  was  the  gospel  preached  to  them,  though 
dead. 

We  acknowledge  that,  were  this  text  isolated,  either  of 
these  two  interpretations  would  be  tenable,  though  with 
preponderating  probability  in  favor  of  the  one  we  adopt. 
But  there  is  still  the  passage  in  the  third  chapter,  to  which 
either  must  be  reconciled,  since,  apparently,  if  not  certainly, 
the  same  thought  recurs  in  each  case,  though  with  differing 
relations  and  associations  :  and  there  is  an  intervening  con- 
text connecting  somehow  the  two. 

What  is  learned  therefore  from  these  passages  and  seems 
to  be  made  explicit,  is  what  we  have  sufficient  reason  to 
hold  is  implicit  throughout  the  New  Testament ;  and  which 
may  be  held  as  a  theological  corollary  emerging  a  priori,  viz. : 
that  the  state  of  souls  after  death  is  a  conscious  state,  and 
one  admitting  of  and  required  for  progressive  self-knowledge ; 
that  fellowship  and  intercourse  are  possible  and  actual  in  it ; 
that  the  knowledge  of  the  redemptive  work  and  plan  must 
necessarily  and  through  some  media  reach  all  souls  in  this 
state ;  that  this  does  not  amount  to  a  probation,  primal  or 
renewed,  to  test  the  quality  and  the  trend  of  each  soul,  since 
this  has  consisted  in  one  or  the  other  alternative  moral 
choice  (which  is  virtually  a  religious  choice),  made  here  on 
earth ;  or  in  a  spontaneous  and  mystically  confirmed  ten- 
dency, the  rudimentary  form  of  human  freedom  (which  is 
also  a  profoundly  religious   tendency  and  relation).     This 


412  CHRISTIAN  DOCTRINE. 

alone  gives  meaning  to  human  mundane  existence.  There 
is  also  learned  that  more  than  this  is  required  for  perfection 
and  salvation,  and  that  what  more  is  sure  to  come,  that  only 
the  knowledge  of  God  as  revealed  in  Jesus  Christ,  his  self- 
limiting  Love  taking  the  form  of  sacrifice,  can  bring  about 
such  adequate  response  as  will  elicit  all  the  possibilities  of 
the  human  soul,  and  enable  it  to  realize  the  Divine  idea  of 
the  human  creation ;  that  salvation  is  not  something  arbi- 
trarily superadded  to  this  supreme  ethico-religious  condition, 
as  though  it  could  be  thought  possible  to  be  otherwise,  but 
grows  out  of  the  absolute  law  and  rule  of  the  universe,  and 
is  part  of  the  immutable  constitution  of  things — which  reveals 
the  essential  Divine  character, — and  consists  in  such  corre- 
spondence of  the  physical  and  mental  being  and  relations  as 
can  only  ensue  when  moral  perfection  is  reached,  and  the 
religious  or  personal  tie  is  intensified  to  the  uttermost :  and 
thus  that  it  is  literally  and  absolutely  true  that  only  by  "  the 
Name,"  by  the  work,  the  power,  and  through  the  knowledge 
of  Christ  can  any  be  saved,  or  that  whoever  are  saved  are 
saved  by  this  process  alone. 


INDEX. 


Abraham,  worthy  of  praise,  II.  38  ; 

the    calling    of,    a    reward    for   his 

faith,  247 
Abstraction  the  vice  of  theology  and 

of  philosophy,  II.  8 
Activity,  the  possibility  of,  thinkable, 

II.  11 
Acts  of  Jesus,  II.  189 
Adoration,  the  central  relation  of  the 

highest   act   of  worship,    II.    152  ; 

either  profoundly  religious  or  only 

symbolic,  153 
./Esthetic   sense,   meaning   of,   I.   55, 

(note) 
Agnosticism  contradicts  its  own  name, 

1-357 

Almighty  Love  assumes  the  un- 
changeableness  of  the  existent  na- 
tural laws,  I.  58 

Ambition  differs  in  men  and  women, 

I.  379 

Animal  pain   predominated  by  pure 

animal  enjoyment,  I.  262 
Animal  world,   Divine  self-limitation 

exists  in,  I.  188 
Annihilation  impossible  to  be  thought, 

II.  360 
Anthropomorphism,  necessity  for  all 

thought  of  the  First  Principle,  I.  332 
Apochryphal  gospels  unhistorical,  un- 

philosophical,  and  theologically  ab- 
surd, I.  256 
Apologetics,  method  of,  I.  121 
Apostles,     the,    called    all    believers 

holy,  II.    71  ;  questions   regarding 

their  powers,  115 
Apostolate,  the  primal,  II.  197 
Appeal,  the  most  powerful,  ever  made, 

II.  52 
Arianism,  almost  entire  disappearance 

of,  I.  356 
Aristotle,  his  method,  II.  222 
Atheism,  how  it  comes  to  exist,  II. 

319 


Atonement,  accomplished  not  in  idea 
only,  but  in  reality,  I.  257  ;  method 
to  be  followed  in  studying,  260  ; 
words  used  in  the  New  Testament 
to  illustrate,  318 

Attainment,  the  ultimate  of  Christian, 
II.  312 

Baptism,  justifies,  II.  58  ;  considered, 
115  ;  not  administered  personally 
by  St.  Peter  nor  St.  Paul,  116; 
what  it  symbolizes,  117  ;  danger  of 
false  notions  of,  119  ;  the  token  of 
Christian  profession,  128  ;  no  record 
in  the  New  Testament  of  infant, 
128  ;  difficulties  in  formulating  a 
doctrine  of  infant,  130  ;  no  proper 
prayer  prescribed  by  Christ  for  the 
ordinance  of,  183  ;  contains  the  es- 
sential elements  of  prayer,  183  ; 
God  not  fettered  by  the  unwisdom 
of  the  administrators  of,  184 

Being,  the  secret  of  absolute,  illus- 
trated, II.  39 

Believers,  the  last  generation  of,  on 
the  earth  will  not  die,  II.  325 

Blood-shedding,  figurative  language 
of,  I.  320 

Body,  the,  not  known  without  soul, 
I.  370  ;  the  "  temple  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,"  II.  69 

Bondage,  man's,  I.  323 

Brain-consciousness,  as  exemplified 
in  dreams,  I.  229  ;  distinct  from  the 
purely  psychical  one,  238 

Brute,  conditional  immortality  think- 
able for  the,  II.  378  ;  development 
of  the,  limited,  379 

Causality,  the  category  which  the  hu- 
man mind  cannot  repudiate,  I.  59  ; 
what  follows  admitting  the  principle 
of,  69  ;  origin  of  the  principle  of, 
84  ;    principle    of,    violated,    127  ; 


413 


414 


INDEX. 


rules  all  our  mental  movements, 
311  ;  the  ultimate  of  human  think- 
ing, II.  28 

Chalccclon  formula,  the  starting-point 
of  theory  of  Thomasius,  I.  215 

Chaos,  the  Divine  Glory  determined, 
II.  12 

Character,  moral  and  religious,  begins 
formation  in  the  merest  infancy,  II. 

135 

Charismata  granted  for  economic 
reasons,  II.  127 

Children,  early  religious  life  of,  II.  136 

Christendom,  deep  anxiety  of,  regard- 
ing the  conception  and  death  of 
Jesus  Christ,  I.  211  ;  seeming  retro- 
gression of,  the  preparation  for  new 
advance,  II.  253 

Christian  Church,  the,  asseveration  of, 
regarding  the  suffering  of  Christ,  I. 
165  ;  a  selected  body,  II.  72  ;  why 
it  exists,  109  ;  its  needs,  109  ;  the 
indispensable  marks  of,  205  ;  fre- 
quent need  of  discipline  in,  207  ; 
must  maintain  the  essential  truth, 
20S  ;  a  very  poor  representation  of 
the  Christian  commonwealth,  308 

Christian  Dogmatics,  why  called  a 
science,  I.  1  ;  helps  to  the  under- 
standing of,  2  ;  certain  postulates 
of,  3  ;  postulates  elaborated,  4  ; 
material,  whence  derived,  5  ;  as  an 
aid  to  speculative  theology,  6  ;  what 
it  assumes,  63  ;  what  it  claims,  64  ; 
attempt  of,  to  elicit  solely  a  doctrine 
of  the  Godhead,  66  ;  attempt  of,  to 
a  positive  construction  of  the  God- 
head, 73  !  begins  at  starting-point 
of  philosophy,  74 

Christian  ministry,  the  idea  of  the, 
precedes  the  idea  of  the  Church,  II. 
192  ;  historic  evidence  of  the  divi- 
sion of  the  functions  of,  195  ;  as 
left  by  the  Apostles,  198  ;  must 
have  a  kind  of  elasticity,  199 

Christian  prayer,  the  mode  of  conse- 
cration in  the  Eucharist,  II.  169  ; 
impulsive,  170  ;  purified  and  ele- 
vated, 173  ;  reaches  its  perfection, 
174  ;  why  it  is  higher  than  all  other 
prayer,  175  ;  when  it  is  perfectly  in 
faith,  176  ;  when  it  is  only  pro- 
visionally in  faith,  176  ;  when  it 
becomes  intercession,  177  ;  for  the 
dead,  177  ;  implies  a  belief  that 
God  will  respond,  179  ;  the  habitual 
thought  underlying,  180  ;  the  essen- 
tial elements  of,  contained  in  bap- 


tism, 184  ;  an  ordinance  of  universal 
obligation,  185;  not  dependent  upon 
words,  187  ;  its  conditions  and  mode 
of  response,  212  ;  possibility  of  re- 
sponse to,  270;  effect  of  earnest,  276 

Christian  Scriptures,  acquiesce  with 
Christian  history,  I.  120  ;  do  not 
answer  the  question  of  the  origin 
of  moral  evil,  138  ;  authority  for 
Divine  limitation,  192  ;  figures  and 
illustrations  of,  often  misleading, 
282  ;  inspiration  of,  II.  220  ;  pe- 
culiarities which  separate  them  from 
all  other  human  writings,  238  ;  the 
most  trustworthy  vehicle  of  historic 
transmission,  240 ;  classification  of 
angelic  beings  in,  337 ;  figurative 
language  of,  regarding  the  destiny 
of  the  morally  evil,  350 

Christianity,  what  it  purports  to  be,  I. 
160  ;  its  peculiarity  to  make  morality 
and  religion  very  nearly  identical, 
278  ;  the  fundamental  idea  of,  317  ; 
meets  man's  utmost  aspiration,  353; 
its  slow  progress,  II.  100  ;  love  the 
root  idea  of,  no  ;  a  living  growth, 
193  ;  transcends  even  the  bounds 
of  nationality  and  race,  258  ;  basis 
of,  364 

Christians,  bound  to  extend  the  gospel, 
II.  192  ;  disagreements  and  disputes 
among,  deaden  zeal,  266  ;  their 
moral  and  religious  progress  may 
be  descried,  312 

Christology,  authors  to  whom  indebted 
for  progress,  I.  212 

Church,  the,  is  ideally  perfect,  II.  193  ; 
early  period  of  the  Christian,  255  ; 
characteristics  of  the  early,  261 

Church  of  Jerusalem  foreshadowed 
the  ultimate  earthly  church,  II.  140 

Clarke,  Dr.  Samuel,  controversy  with 
M.  Leibnitz,  II.  339 

Coleridge,  Samuel  Taylor,  his  idea  of 
faith,  II.  32 

Commonwealth,  the  harmonized,  II. 
in 

Compte,  his  classification,  II.  221 

Conditional  immortality,  meaning  of, 

I.  30  ;  bars  solution  of  problem  of 
moral  evil,  31 

Conference,   the  object  and  effect  of 

mutual,  II.  249 
Confirmation  devised  by  the  Apostles, 

II.  137 

Consciousness,  elements  contained  in 
a  sinless,  I.  248  ;  development  of 
religious,  II.  136 


INDEX. 


4i5 


Consecration  of  the  individual  operates 
upon  the  entire  organism,  II.  152 

Controversy  expended  with  little  re- 
sult upon  the  sacrament  of  the 
Eucharist,  II.  186 

Converts  baptized  on  the  day  of  Pen- 
tecost, II.  140 

Creation,  full  of  joy,  I.  132  ;  God's, 
attained  at  expense  of  pain  and 
agony,  141  ;  an  act  of  Love,  242  ; 
the  doctrine  of,  elucidated,  360 

Crisis,  the  last,  in  the  career  of  the 
Christian  soul,  II.  327 

Cultus,  propensity  of  man  for  invent- 
ing, II.  30  ;  the  Christian  religion 
more  than  a  mere,  188 

David,  devout  utterances  of,  II.  39 

"  Day  of  the  Lord  "  of  interest  for  the 
dead  as  well  as  for  the  living,  II.  314 

Death,  security  against,  I.  292  ;  once 
a  possibility,  now  a  certainty,  293  ; 
for  man  the  penalty  of  sin,  293  ; 
entrance  into  the  realm  of  pure 
thought,  294  ;  man's  natural  shrink- 
ing from,  294  ;  must  be  looked  at 
from  both  sides,  300  ;  of  Christ  a 
benefit  to  all  mankind,  330  ;  sum- 
ming up  of  the  consequences  of  sin, 
337  ;  abolished  by  the  sacrificial 
death,  352  ;  what  it  is  to  the  Chris- 
tian believer,  II.  301  ;  language  of 
Scripture  regarding,  302  ;  human, 
other  than  animal,  329 

"  Depravity,"  what  it  is  and  what  it 
is  not,  I.  44 

Despair  has  an  inner  element  of  hope, 
II.  362 

Determination,  purposes  of,  I.  12  ;  its 
last  stronghold,  13  ;  the  perfection 
of  freedom  takes  the  form  of,  II. 
66 

Determinism  better  than  mere  indif- 
ferentism,  II.  66 

Development  only  needs  a  fitting  en- 
vironment, II.  373 

Diaconate,  the  institution  of  the 
primitive,  II.  197  ;  merely  nomin- 
al, 200 

Disciples,  instructed  by  Jesus,  II.  147; 
the  Corinthian,  rebuked  by  St.  Paul, 
167 

Divine  glory,  must  be  thought  as  in- 
finite, but  susceptible  of  determi- 
nation, I.  105  ;  not  identical  with 
the  Holy  Spirit,  363  ;  identified 
with  perfect  Light,  364  ;  becomes 
the  universe,  II.  354 


Divine  Love,  observation  conducts  to 
conception  of  the,  I.  118  ;  so  per- 
fect as  not  to  be  indulgent,  118  ; 
the  uttermost  of  it  shown  only  in 
sacrifice,  203  ;  Divine  power  most 
real  when  hidden,  224 

Divine  revelation,  probability  of  a 
still  further,  I.  6  ;  will  bear  every 
test,  II.  34 

Divine  scheme,  the,  human  perfec- 
tion its  end  and  aim,  II.  157 

Divine  Will,  shows  itself  in  the  self- 
limitation  required  for  Incarnation, 
!•  233  »  Jesus  Christ  uncertain 
which  way  it  might  lead,  251 

Doctrine,  symbols  of,  how  formed,  I. 
67 

Doctrine  of  grace,  philosophic  vindi- 
cation of  the,  I.  119 

Dog,  behavior  of  the,  II.  377 

Dogma,  a,  what  it  is,  II.  68 

Doubt,  origin  of,  II.  224 

Dreams,  made  up  of  our  past  experi- 
ence, II.  290 ;  some  cannot  be 
reduced  to  automatism,  290  ; 
conscience  entirely  extinct  in  all, 
291 

Dualism,  scheme  of,  I.  94  ;  Chris- 
tianity accused  of,  95 

Duty,  details  of,  explained  and  justi- 
fied, II.  252 

Ebrard,  theory  of  the  Logos,  I.  230  ; 
repudiates  the  charge  of  Doketism, 
232  ;  his  conception  of  the  iden- 
tical consciousness  of  the  Eternal 
and  the  Incarnate  Logos,  236 

Effort,  moral,  analyzed,  II.  51 

Elders,  ordained  by  the  Apostles,  II. 
197  ;  the  care  of  souls  mainly  con- 
fined to  the  order  of,  203 

Election,  doctrine  of,  II.  101  ;  the 
Christian,  as  constituting  the 
Church,  102  ;  visible,  not  the  same 
as  the  eternal,  102 

Elements  constituting  the  heavenly 
state,  II.  335 

Ellicott,  Bishop,  a  suggestion  in  his 
commentary,  II.  388 

Emotion,  the  love  of  God  the  purest 
form  of,  II.  215 

Endeavor,  the  need  of  an,  to  reach 
the  limit  of  our  thought,  II.  187 

Episcopate,  the,  has  greatly  changed, 
II.  200  ;  the  judge  of  the  Christian 
faith,  201 

Esoteric  Buddhism  requires  a  sepa- 
rate critique,  I.  358 


416 


INDEX. 


Essential  immortality,  man's  moral 
nature  explained  by,  I.  31 

Ethical  process  implies  a  mental  and 
physical  process,  II.  7 

Ethical  theories,  main  object  of,  I.  18 

Evangelists,  significance  to  them  of 
Jesus'  baptism,  II.  189 

Evil,  destiny  of  the  morally,  an  in- 
soluble mystery,  II.  344  ;  the  ex- 
istence of  the  persistently,  admitted 
as  a  fact,  347  ;  a  superficial  con- 
ception of,  348  ;  how  it  can  be 
most  correctly  apprehended,  352  ; 
the  nature  of  absolute,  not  yet  made 
real,  357 

Evolution,  the  solid  truth  in  any  the- 
ory of,  II.  35  ;  may  be  admitted 
without  risk  to  spiritual  truth,  379 

Existence,  a  synthesis  of  relations,  I. 
29  ;  post-mortal,  II.  94  ;  the  essen- 
tial characteristic  of  organic,  122 

Experience  in  the  Christian  life,  II. 
1S1 

Faith,  exists  because  the  problem  of 
evil  is  unsolved,  I.  86  ;  alone 
meets  the  instinct  of  aspiration, 
95  ;  necessity  of  aid  to  amplify  the 
object  of,  II.  24  ;  Christian,  ana- 
lyzed, 25  ;  God  the  only  ob- 
ject-matter of,  32  ;  is  a  moral  as 
well  as  a  religious  act,  50  ;  alone 
justifies,  59  ;  the  joint  act  of  God 
and  man,  71  ;  conflict  of,  179  ;  as 
strong  in  our  day  as  in  the  primi- 
tive Christian  period,  257  ;  re- 
garded in  its  mental  element,  310  ; 
its  real  strength,  310  ;  the  principle 
of,  may  be  inherited,  322 

Faith  cures,  powers  of  nature  availed 
of  in,  II.  259 

Fall  of  man,  various  solutions  of, 
unsatisfactory,  I.  40  ;  its  existence 
and  origin,  128 

Feeling  prior  to  and  deeper  than 
thought,  II.  170 

First  Principle,  efforts  to  reach  a 
proximately  satisfying  notion  of 
the,  I.  87  ;  personality  found  in 
the,  88  ;  a  Unity  because  it  is  a 
Trinity,  no 

Food  nourishes  only  by  Divine  ap- 
pointment, II.  166 

Force,  figured  as  personal  effort,  II. 
170  ;  grandeur  of  physical  results 
no  true  measure  of,  182 

Force-centre,  the  will  as  an  indiffer- 
ent, I.  146 


Forgiveness,  Divine,  closely  con- 
nected with  the  Divine  justice,  I. 
268  ;  feeling  of,  survives  the  feel- 
ing of  indignation,  282  ;  Divine, 
triumph  of  the  law  of  recuperation 
over  the  law  of  retribution,  273 

Freedom,  moral  necessity  the  per- 
fection of,  I.  276  ;  forever  respect- 
ed in  the  creature,  II.  125 

Gentiles,  their  judgment  of  Christian 
believers,  II.  410 

Gess,  distinctive  theory  of,  I.  381 

Glorification,  meaning  of  absolute,  I. 
307 

Godhead,  the,  exegetical  method  of 
formulating  the  Christian  doctrine 
of,  I.  78  ;  existence  of  the  uni- 
verse by  virtue  of  relations  to, 
80  ;  as  expressed  in  the  Nicene 
Symbol,  81  ;  doctrine  of,  imper- 
fectly formulated,  82  ;  doctrine  of, 
must  be  vindicated  by  speculation, 
83  ;  the  starting-point  of  specula- 
tion upon,  84  ;  Tritheistic  scheme 
of,  92  ;  functions  of,  94  ;  the  Sa- 
bellian  scheme  of,  95  ;  the  Catholic 
scheme  of,  96  ;  relations  of,  to  the 
universe,  106  ;  admits  of  no  change, 
106  ;  Love  its  sole  spiritual  attri- 
bute, no  ;  all  relations  of,  must 
be  traced  back  to  the  Divine  Love, 
260  ;  cannot  be  rightly  known  until 
God's  will  is  done,  II.  247  ;  con- 
tains the  conditions  of  reciproca- 
tion, 268 

Gospel  preaching,  the,  the  Christian's 
irrepressible  impulse,  II.  1 16 

Grace,  doctrine  of,  I.  325 

Guilt,  conclusions  of  Julius  Miiller 
on,  I.  49  ;  feeling  of,  precedes 
judgment  of,  49  ;  inference  of,  most 
readily  drawn  from  physical  laws, 
50  ;  dread  of  suffering  first  form  of 
feeling  of,  50  ;  judgment  of,  sepa- 
rates itself  from  the  feeling,  56  ; 
the  most  constant  and  pain-giving 
element  in,  57  ;  the  primary  feeling 
in,  57  ;  feeling  of,  contains  the 
idea  of  a  personal  God,  57  ;  as  self- 
accusation  is  but  a  delusion,  134 

Heat,  result  of,  I.  368 

Heaven  as  figured,  II.  4 

Hebrews,  what  is  found  in  their  his- 
tory, II.  36  ;  God's  treatment  of, 
37  ;  their  belief  poorly  illustrated 
in  their  lives,  40 


INDEX. 


417 


Heredity,  validity  of,  established,  I. 
42  ;  favors  theory  that  the  human 
race  sprang  from  a  single  pair,  42  ; 
distinction  in  the  transmitted  ten- 
dencies of  father  and  mother,  167  ; 
conditions  explaining  the  sinless- 
ness  of  Jesus  Christ,  168  ;  advan- 
tage already  gained  through,  II.  373 

History,  key  to  interpret,  II.  34  ;  full 
of  the  vagaries  of  imagination,  289 

Holiness,  what  it  expresses,  II.  62  ; 
its  guide  the  law  of  love,  63 

Holy  Church,  the,  a  visible  organiza- 
tion, II.  71 

Holy  Sacraments,  the,  as  rites  pre- 
scribed, II.  71 

Holy  Spirit,  the  mediating,  energiz- 
ing principle,  I.  224  ;  the  prayers 
of  Jesus  Christ  mediated  by,  251  ; 
when  it  came,  II.  13  ;  can  never  be 
lost  from  man)  14  ;  the  influences 
of,  proportioned  to  the  degree  of 
faith,  183  ;  where  to  seek  its  influ- 
ence, 216  ;  activity  of  the,  267 

Holy  Supper,  the,  considered,  II. 
115  ;  its  administration  limited  by 
the  Church,  117  ;  could  not  be  effi- 
cacious until  after  the  resurrection 
and  ascension  of  Christ,  148  ;  the 
sole  act  of  worship  which  Jesus 
prescribed,  149  ;  what  it  implies, 
151  ;  the  celebration  of,  requires 
an  imitation  of  the  Lord's  own 
sacrifice,' 152  ;  not  a  sudden  after- 
thought of  our  Lord,  154  ;  a  per- 
petual obligation,  158  ;  what  it  ac- 
complishes for  the  Christian  belief, 
159  ;  a  channel  of  life,  166  ;  how  it 
may  enfeeble  the  eternal  life,  166  ; 
reasons  why  the  celebration  of, 
should  be  confined  to  the  ministry, 
169  ;  Jesus'  acts  in  the  institution 
of,  184  ;  the  administration  of,  by 
laymen  a  rare  exception,  196 

Hope,  a  feeling,  not  a  thought,  II.  362 

Human  consciousness,  analyzed,  I. 
44  ;  determined  by  the  physical 
universe,  89 ;  gradually  modified 
by  the  Divine  element,  280  ;  not 
explicable  upon  physical  assump- 
tions merely,  II.  316 

Human  development,  motive-spring 
of,  in  early  stages,  I.  14  ;  possible 
without  the  appearance  of  actual 
moral  evil,  19  ;  disturbed  by  the 
contradiction  of  moral  evil,  125  ; 
must  be  progressive,  148  ;  of  what 
it  must  consist,  148 


Human  existence,  a  concrete  synthe- 
sis, I.  89  ;  of  Jesus  Christ,  172 

Human  freedom,  as  finite,  I.  85  ; 
limited  to  giving  the  moral  form  to 
human  action,  180 

Humanity,  the  idea  of,  is  the  God- 
man,  I.  237  ;  the  creation  of 
the  primal,  was  an  act  of  self- 
limitation,  353  ;  the  new,  an  ethical 
organism,  II.  136  ;  the  moral  idea 
of,  190 

Human  mind,  in  movement,  I.  59  ; 
influence  of  sleep  upon,  298 

Human  personality,  requirements  of, 
I.  89 

Human  recovery,  its  rationality,  I. 
114  ;  must  be  universal,  119 

Human  self-consciousness  analyzed, 
I.  98 

Human  thought  cannot  reproduce  the 
sinless  consciousness,  I.  247 

Human  will,  name  of  the  entire  syn- 
thesis which  constitutes  the  human 
being,  II.  214 

Idealism    obliged    to    use    force,    I. 

314 

Idolatry,  its  conception  of  power,  II. 
172  ;  the  essential  notion  of,  178  ; 
the  corrective  to  tendency  to,  178  ; 
object  of,  367 

Illumination,  two  kinds  of,  II.  233 

Immortality,  the  notion  of  condi- 
tional, is  untenable,  II.  342 

Impulse  of  brutes,  II.  373 

Incarnation,  the  Scotist  theory  of  the, 
I.  146  ;  the  speculative  ground  for 
the  doctrine  of  the,  152  ;  founded 
upon  the  fact  of  the  unique  person- 
ality of  Jesus  Christ,  157  ;  Chris- 
tian doctrine  of  the,  157  ;  involved 
in  the  primal  Divine  idea  of  man, 
159  ;  a  Divine  act,  161  ;  accom- 
plished through  the  efficiency  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  161  ;  an  act  of  love, 
179  ;  consists  in  loving  God  and 
one's  neighbor,  182  ;  as  an  act  of 
self-limitation  supremely  rational, 
187  ;  not  an  arbitrary  matter,  210  ; 
one  purpose  of,  an  ethical  one, 
240  ;  the  doctrine  of,  reveals  the 
highest  idea  of  God,  350  ;  the  full 
idea  of,  realized,  II.  295 

Infallibility,  belongs  to  no  set  of 
propositions  whatever,  II.  246  ; 
doctrine  of,  ignores  the  profound 
harmony  of  the  Divine  attributes, 
249 


4iS 


INDEX. 


Infants,  no  difference  in  character  of 
baptized  and  unbaptized,  II.  131 

Infinity,  idea  of,  an  imperious  mental 
requirement,  II.  272 

Influence,  spiritual,  classified  accord- 
ing to  analysis  of  human  character, 
II.  183 

Innocence,  untried  sin  is  an  astonish- 
ment to,  I.  288 

Inorganic  world,  the,  God  has  limited 
himself  in,  I.  188 

Inspiration,  disputes  as  to  the  mean- 
ing of  the  word,  II.  209  ;  the  object 
of  the  Divine,  230  ;  various  kinds  of, 
232 ;  not  contradicted  by  science,  238 

Instinct,  man's,  corrected  by  philoso- 
phy, II.  171 

Institution,  the  human  family  a  visi- 
ble, II.  108 

Intelligence  admits  of  degrees,  I.  369 

Intercession  is  the  nervous  system  of 
the  spiritual  organism,  I.  265 

Intermarriages,  influence  of,  II.  313 

Irenaeus,  opinion  of  price  paid  to 
Satan,  I.  325 

Jesus  Christ,  a  true  human  develop- 
ment in,  I.  1C9  ;  history  of,  unique 
in  absence  of  all  moral  weakness, 

173  ;  above  all  spiritual  temptation, 

174  ;  assumes  His  own  eminence 
over  all  His  fellow-men,  175  ;  His 
domination  over  nature,  175  ;  did 
not  exercise  the  Divine  attributes, 
193  ;  inference  that  He  was  what 
He  seemed  to  be,  194  ;  never 
claimed  universal  knowledge,  195  ; 
claimed  superhuman  knowledge, 
195  :  humanity  of,  determined  by 
His  environment,  221  ;  displays  the 
essential  form  of  all  energy,  223  ; 
the  Logos  in  human  form,  227  ; 
"  double  life  "  of,  227  ;  the  miracles 
of,  234  ;  ethically  harmonious,  237  ; 
His  utterance  on  the  cross,  241;  His 
temptations  and  trials  real,  246;  His 
sadness  during  the  latter  period  of 
His  ministry,  2S5  ;  His  absolute 
loneliness  among  men,  286  ;  mean- 
ing of  the  interval  between  His 
death  and  His  resurrection,  305  ; 
His  sufferings  spiritual,  343  ;  rela- 
tion of,  after  His  death,  with  the 
departed  ones,  II.  5  ;  His  allusions 
to  His  own  death,  154  ;  meaning  of 
His  submission  to  John's  baptism, 
189  ;  necessity  for  His  abiding  in 
the  intermediate  state,  295 


John  the  Baptist,  intent  of  his  preach- 
ing, II.  188 

Judgment,  something  that  is  going  on 
perpetually,  II.  236  ;  meaning  of 
the  final,  236  ;  emphasis  laid  upon 
it  in  the  Scriptures,  300  ;  what  it  is, 
321  ;  the  end  and  manifestation  of, 
324;  the  coming  of,  must  be  sudden, 
325  ;  the  manifestation  of  the  Di- 
vine glory,  326 

Justice,  when  to  form  conception  of, 
I.  260  ;  what  constitutes  Divine, 
261  ;  law  of,  not  infringed  by  suf- 
fering, 266  ;  retribution  and  for- 
giveness, are  the  modes  of  the 
Divine,  273  ;  works  according  to 
fixed  laws,  276  ;  separation  of  the 
Divine,  from  the  Divine  Love,  332  ; 
the  Divine,  when  satisfied,  333  ;  as 
an  element  of  the  Divine  idea,  II. 
173 

Justification,  meaning  of  the  word, 
much  disputed,  II.  53  ;  a  new  re- 
lation, 56  ;  made  real,  59 

Knowledge  determined  through  mys- 
tical influences,  II.  290 

Law,  does  not  exist  in  the  moral 
sense,  I.  248  ;  more  and  less  need 
of,  II.  in  ;  use  and  purpose  of  the 
Hebrew,  in 

Liebnitz,  M.,  controversy  with  Dr. 
Samuel  Clarke,  II.  339 

Life,  a  mooted  point  in  physiology,  I. 
374  ;  has  meaning  for  all,  II.  86 

Light,  identical  with  Divine  glory,  I. 
104  ;  a  mode  of  motion  in  the  hy- 
pothecated ether,  364 

Logos,  means  for  the  further  revela- 
tion of  the  Godhead,  I.  153;  the 
governing  power  of  the  world,  226  ; 
revelation  of,  226  ;  opinions  of  Mar- 
tensen  and  Ebrard,  230  ;  author's 
analysis  of,  230 

Lord's  Supper,  the,  see  Holy 
Supper. 

Love,  inherent  in  the  Divine  charac- 
ter, I.  202  ;  an  acquisition,  208  ;  is 
a  commonwealth  of  holy  souls,  248; 
depth  of  Divine,  revealed  by  the 
innocent  suffering  for  the  guilty, 
266  ;  the  origin  and  the  end  of  all 
things,  333  ;  maternal,  340;  nothing 
holier  than  responsive,  II.  49  ;  a 
dialectic  concrete  necessity,  190 ; 
stronger  than  death,  334  ;  an  inter- 
fusion of  heart  with  heart,  366 


INDEX. 


419 


Lutherans,  the  old,  virtually  Nestori- 
ans  in  their  theory  of  the  Logos,  I. 
231 

Magus,  Simon,  the  possibility  of  his 
repentance  and  forgiveness,  II.  72 

Man,  the  crown  of  creation,  I.  ill  ; 
his  first  appearance,  125  ;  how  to 
account  for  what  is  best  and  worst 
in,  138  ;  conditions  of  temptation, 
trial,  and  victory,  144  ;  the  Divine 
idea  in  the  creation  of,  145  ;  be- 
comes holy,  151;  individual  isolated 
perfection  unattainable,  265;  efforts 
to  escape  retribution,  268  ;  repent- 
ance of,  271  ;  soul  of,  self-conscious 
after  death,  298  ;  result  of  his  moral 
defection,  323  ;  reconciled  to  God, 
328  ;  not  complete  in  himself,  372  ; 
primal  fault  of,  springs  from  doubt, 
II.  19  ;  repulsed  from  God  by  a 
sense  of  his  own  unworthiness,  173; 
knows  himself  to  be  above  nature, 
182  ;  as  a  true  universal,  225  ;  what 
he  was  intended  to  be,  280  ;  his 
ideal  career  outlined,  283 

Mankind,  God's  different  treatment 
of  the  races  of,  II.  34 

Man's  freedom,  strictly  a  moral  one, 
I.  10  ;  how  far  affected  by  determi- 
nation, 11 

Man's  moral  movement,  how  begun, 
I.  43  ;  progress  of,  45  ;  as  compared 
with  the  Christian  scheme,  47 

Martyr,  Justin,  his  idea  of  the  "  Holy 
Spirit  "  named  in  the  Annunciation, 
I.  218  ;  strenuous  assertion  of,  II. 
15 

Materialism,  dilemma  of,  I.  314 

Matter,  existence  of,  accounted  for, 
I.  360  ;  known  only  through  our 
senses,  361 

Metaphysic,  a  successless  tentative  of 
the  curious  intellect,  II.  185 

Mind,  most  active  in  deep  sleep,  II. 
290 

Ministry  constituted  by  Jesus,  II. 
114 

Miracles,  contrast  between  the  early 
Christian  and  the  modern  ones,  II. 
260 

Moral  evil,  first  form  of  the  notion  of, 
I.  17  ;  thought  as  violation  of  the 
Divine  will,  18  ;  origin  and  nature 
of,  20  ;  intensest  form  of,  22  ; 
growth  of,  23  ;  unsatisfactory  at- 
tempts to  explain,  24  ;  simplified, 
24  ;  speculation  on,  without  Bibli- 


cal aid,  25  ;  satisfactory  solution 
of,  a  detriment  to  human  develop- 
ment, 27  ;  Biblical  notion  of,  37  ; 
scheme  under  which  the  notion  of, 
disappears,  72  ;  the  one  evil  which 
human  thinking  cannot  triumph 
over,  115  ;  solution  of  the  origin  and 
the  nature  of,  127  ;  no  excuse  for, 
in  the  physical  world,  137  ;  its  es- 
sence, 139  ;  seems  to  be  deliberate- 
ly chosen,  II.  306  ;  could  not  exist 
without  freedom  and  responsibility, 
352 

Moral  freedom,  truth  of,  implies  the 
possession  of  a  universalistic  ideal, 
1.53 

Moral  law,  understanding  of,  reveals 
man's  irrational  state,  I.  51  ;  obe- 
dience to  the,  results  in  well-being, 
118  ;  violation  of  the,  brings  suffer- 
ing, 118 

Moral,  meaning  of  the  word,  ex- 
plained, I.  277 

Moral  perfection  not  the  Divine  in- 
tent for  the  mass  of  mankind,  II. 
320 

Moral  recovery  in  the  Divine  mind 
and  heart,  I.  119 

"  Moral  sense,"  meaning  of,  155, 
(note) 

Morality,  what  it  may  be  thought,  I. 
116  ;  identity  with  religion,  117  ; 
Christian,  identical  with  and  yet 
different  from  all  other  true  moral- 
ity, II.  51 

Motion  the  result  of  heat,  I.  364 

Mystics,  the,  claims  sometimes  made 
by  them,  II.  237 

Nature,    overcomes   man   at   last,    I. 
323  ;   not  dead,  but  living,  II.  12  ; 
uniformity    of,    makes    knowledge 
possible,    29  ;    forces   of,    a    realm 
apart,  179  ;  much  yet  to  be  known 
of,  182  ;  inexhaustible,  210  ;  a  reve- 
lation of  God,  225  ;  put  back  and 
conquered,  280  ;   hostile   to   man's 
normal  development,  305 
Nearness  of  God,  II.  181 
Nestorianism,  what  it  is,  I.  383 
New  Testament,  the,  implies  a  philos- 
ophy, I.  247  ;  what  is  uppermost  in 
the  minds  of  the  writers  of,  II.  52  ; 
the  Christian  believer,  how  spoken 
of   in,    64  ;   phraseology   of,  made 
simple,  126 
Noah,  "  a  preacher  of  righteousness," 
II.  404 


420 


INDEX. 


Old  dispensation  not  available  in 
judging  the  meaning  of  the  sacri- 
fice of  Christ,  I.  282 

Omnipotence  cannot  be  without  om- 
niscience, II.  399 

Ordination,  the  true,  of  Jesus,  II. 
189  ;  vindicated  by  the  self-conse- 
cration of  Jesus,  191 

Original  sin,  what  it  is,  I.  42  ;  the 
fact  of,  375 

Pain,  results  of  animal,  I.  132  ;  cir- 
cumstances under  which  not  felt, 
133  ;  indicates  imperfect  light,  133; 
thought  as  that  which  ought  not  to 
be,  133  ;  bodily,  the  beginning  of 
death,  293  ;  made  acute  by  premo- 
nition of  death,  338  ;  indication  of 
a  deranged  physical  relation,  340  ; 
the  difficulties  of  animal,  are  not 
insuperable,  II.  333 

Paradise  of  rest,  the  first  wish  of  the 
human  soul  after  death,  II.  300 

Parents  not  irresponsible  before  birth, 
II.  133 

Parsimony,  availability  of  the  law  of, 
II.  132 

Personal  identity,  continuity  of,  does 
not  require  an  unbroken  thread  of 
consciousness,  I.  221 

Personality  underlies  all  manifesta- 
tions of  power,  II.  171 

Personal  tie,  the  motive  spring  of 
man's  moral  growth,  I.  149 ;  the 
perfection  of  the,   II.   369 

Philosophy,  to  be  absolutely  true 
must  be  exhaustive,  I.  310;  methods 
of,  310  ;  the  task  of,  313  ;  an  opti- 
mistic, II.  372 

Physical  degradation  springs  from 
moral  evil,    I.    141 

Physical  evil,  diminished  by  moral 
rectitude,  I.  22  ;  theories  of  deri- 
vation of,  22  ;  exists  at  man's  ad- 
vent, 141 

Physical  forces  sometimes  issue  in 
cataclysms,   I.   142 

Polytheism  annihilated  by  the  idea  of 
the  First  Principle,  II.  38 

"  Preached,"  what  the  word  indi- 
cates,  II.   295 

Predestination,  the  Divine,  how  main- 
tained without  denying  human 
freedom,  II.  103  ;  apparent  in  the 
self-conscious  will,  124 

Presbyterate  gained  in  its  function 
with  the  changes  in  the  Christian 
world,  II.  202 


Prescriptions  of  Jesus  obligatory,  II. 

145 
Presence,  expression  of  the  word,  II. 

165 

Price,  paying  a,  illustrates  extent  of 
the  Divine  Love,  I.  324  ;  paid  to 
Satan  unmeaning,  324 

Priesthood,  the  universal  Christian, 
II.  192  ;  a  limited,  is  a  necessity 
for  the  militant  state,  193 

Probation,  after  death  by  no  means  a 
certainty,  I.  302  ;  for  infants  after 
death,  II.  105  ;  no  moral,  after 
death,  320 

Promises  attached  to  Christian  rites, 
II.  141 

Proof,  no  other  possible,  II.  80 

Providence,  conditions  of,  for  a  nor- 
mal and  sinless  development,  I. 
151  ;  law  of,  restorative  rather 
than  vindictive,  270  ;  a  doctrine 
of,  II.  81  ;  scheme  of,  107  ;  a  spe- 
cial, 181  ;  doctrine  of  general,  pre- 
adapted  to  the  human  race,  181  ; 
man's  ordinary  feeling  towards,  365 

Prudence  advised  by  St.  Peter,  II. 
404 

Psychical  consciousness  exists  inde- 
pendent of  the  hypostatic  union,  I. 
238 

Psychology,  the  task  of,  I.  312  ;  re- 
construction of,  II.  238 

Punishment  after  death  supposes  God 
to  be  vindictive,  II.  359 

Purgatory,  effect  of  a  doctrine  of,  II. 

345 
Purpose,  definition  of,  II.  26S 

Ransom  synonymous  with  redemp- 
tion, I.  322 

Reason  satisfied  only  with  perfection, 
I.  58 

Reconciliation,  the  proper  phraseolo- 
gy of,  I.  327 

Recuperation,  no  profounder  provi- 
dential law,  I.  272  ;  law  of  the  an- 
nulment of  the  consequences  of 
sin,  273  ;  brings  about  human  re- 
covery, 276 

Redemption,  derivation  and  meaning 
of,  I.  322 

Redemptive  process,  how  to  under- 
stand the,  I.  147 

Regeneration,  a  vital  process,  II.  57  ; 
a  religious  as  well  as  a  physical 
change,  156  ;  affects  man's  entire 
being,  156  ;  the  transmutation  of 
the  old  into  the  new,  167 


INDEX. 


421 


Religion,  what  it  is,  I.  116  ;  its  broad- 
est definition,  II.  171 

Responsibility,  presupposes  freedom, 
II.  54  ;  reached  through  self-con- 
sciousness, 133 

Rest  does  not  exist,  I.  366 

Restoration,  speculations  regarding 
universal,   II.   343 

Retribution,  the  result  of  violations 
of  the  laws  of  the  universe,  I.  268  ; 
likelihood  of,  after  death,  269 

Rites,  the  two,  retained  by  the  Apos- 
tles, II.  114 

Ritual  of  the  Holy  Supper  must  vary, 
II.  195 

Roman  Church,  the  logic  of,  II.  72. 

Sabellianism,  readily  adjustable  to  the 
theologic  scheme,  I.  355  ;  person- 
ality assumed  as  the  highest  idea 
of,  355  . 

Sacrifice,  its  restricted  meaning,  I. 
189  ;  the  giving  up  of  life  the  per- 
fection of,  283  ;  restricted  meaning 
of  the  word  by  superficial  thinkers, 
319  ;  leads  to  moral  perfection,  342 

Sacrifices,  nature  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, I.  258  ;  not  properly  moral 
acts,  259 

Sacrificial  atonement,  seeming  want 
of  progress  in  the  theological  doc- 
trine of,  I.  212 

Salvation,  human,  how  possible,  I. 
308  ;  through  Christ  alone,  II. 
412 

Sanctification,  what  it  is,  I.  275  ;  a 
positive  process,  II.  57  ;  begins 
with  the  recognition  of  the  central 
truth,  II.  67  ;  must  be  accompanied 
by  regeneration,  253 

Satisfaction,  difficult  to  explicate,  I. 
331  ;  the  Divine,  actually  progres- 
sive, 332  ;  accomplished  by  Christ 
alone,  333  ;  the  Divine,  compre- 
hensible for  human  thought,  333 

Schemes,  theologic,  regarding  the 
death  of  Christ,  I.  334 ;  of  the 
Greek  philosophers,  II.  222 

Science,  confirms  the  fundamental 
idea  of  Christianity,  I.  317  ;  the 
problem  of,  II.  317 

Self-communion,  needed  even  by 
Jesus,  II.  191 

Self-consecration,  what  it  means,  II. 
161  ;  of  Jesus,  His  ordination  in  its 
perfect  reality,  191 

Self-determination,  the  ultimate  of 
human  thought,  I.  14 


Self-development,  the  principle  of, 
requires  time  as  its  pre-condition, 
II.  381 

Self-limitation,  the  very  first  thing  to 
be  thought  in  any  true  idea  of  crea- 
tion, I.  188  ;  its  perfection  found  in 
the  Divine  being  itself,  189  ;  the 
essential  element  of  sacrifice,  189  ; 
God  not  destroyed  by,  216  ;  in  the 
incarnation  is  infinite  potence,  224  ; 
the  Divine,  becomes  a  kenosis,  226 

Severity,  evidence  of  the  Divine,  II. 

173 

Sin,  presupposes  a  moral  law,  I.  28  ; 
derives  validity  from  man's  essential 
immortality,  29  ;  full  significance 
of  notion  of,  55  ;  an  absolute  re- 
versal of  the  primitive  tendencies 
of  our  being,  55  ;  weakness  of  will 
the  source  of  much  human,  274  ;  of 
the  first  human  ones  not  selfish,  II. 
20  ;  how  God  pardons,  61  ;  remis- 
sion of,  61 

Socrates,  wisdom  of,  II.  238 

Solitariness  not  to  be  thought  as  the 
intermediate  state,  II.  295 

Soul,  the  departed,  not  without  en- 
vironment, I.  305  ;  realms  of  the 
material  and  spiritual,  are  still  uni- 
fied in  the  intermediate  state,  II. 
289  ;  the  human,  the  most  complex 
of  all  existing  concretes,  317 

Speculative  theology,  not  antagonistic 
towards  science  nor  historic  investi- 
gation, I.  35  ;  entirely  indifferent 
to  mode  of  human  origin,  124 

Spencer,  Herbert,  II.  170 

Stadium,  the  metaphysical,  II.  222  ; 
the  positive,  223 

St.  James,  propensity  he  had  in  mind, 

II.  59 

St.  John,  Apocalypse  of,  II.  278 

St.  Paul,  words  of,  I.  306  ;  his  opin- 
ion of  the  heathen,  II.  88  ;  precept 
of,  186  ;  his  expressed  desire,  295 

St.  Peter,  disabused  of  his  prejudices, 
II.  4  ;  study  of  a  certain  passage  in 
the  first  Epistle  of,  5  ;  recognition 
of  his  Master's  Divine  Sonship, 
16  ;  conflicting  interpretations  of 
his  words,  386  ;  peculiarities  of  his 
epistles,  407 

Suffering,  is  more  or  less  vicarious,  I. 
266  ;  of  the  innocent,  how  recon- 
ciled with  the  justice  of  Providence, 
269  ;  comes  from  the  violation  of 
nature's  laws,  II.  365 

Suicide,  intention  of,  I.  338 


422 


INDEX. 


Superstition,  essence  and  definition 
of,  II.  249 

Temptation,  Jesus'  resistance  to,  II. 

191 
Theologian,    the,   prayer  worthy  the 

utmost  thought-labor  of,  II.  186 
Theology,   identity  with  philosophy, 
I.    313  ;    criticism    of    doctrine    of 
ransom  paid  to  Satan,  322  ;  a  pro- 
gressive science,  II.  68 
Thomasius,   theory  of,   I.  215  ;   how 
differing  with  Gess,  219  ;  objections 
to  theory  of,  220  ;  emphatic  asser- 
tion of,  222 
Thought,  fertility  of  Eastern,  I.  358  ; 
culminating   stage   of   Jewish,    II. 
38  ;    claims    of    Christian,    46  ;    a 
strange    instance    of    narrow    and 
one-sided,  182 
Time  cannot  be  thought  away,  II.  293 
Transmigration,  notions  of,  II.  98 
Tritheism,  misconception  of,  II.  45 
Truth,   held    only   in   an   articulated 
synthesis,   II.   249  ;    no   danger   of 
widespread  misapprehension  of  Di- 
vine, 251  ;  illumination  of,  by  the 
Holy  Spirit,  252 

Unbelief,  the  cause  of  human  aber- 
rancy, II.  52  ;  no  firm  and  sufficient 
ground  for,  341 

Unfaith,  source  of  all  sin  and  short- 
coming, II.  23 

Unity  and  trinity,  a  Christian  dogma, 
I.  158  ;  the  necessary  form  of  any 
doctrine  of  the  First  Principle,  159 


Unity,  rival  systems  of,  I.  21  ;  concep- 
tion of,  definitely  reached,  II.  29 

Universe,  the,  known  only  as  ma- 
terial, I.  102  ;  a  free  creation,  108  ; 
modification  is  perpetual  in,  240  ; 
the  death  of  Jesus  Christ  the  cen- 
tral fact  in  the  history  of,  284  ;  dis- 
covery of  the  absolute  law  of,  316  ; 
what  this  law  is,  317  ;  the  regener- 
ating principle  of,  317  ;  not  neces- 
sary to  have  an  end,  366  ;  ruled  by 
a  benevolent  God,  II.  23  ;  the 
highest  law  of  the,  181  ;  faith  that 
the  power  of,  is  righteous,  224  ;  is 
a  unit,  267  ;  absolute  constitution 
of,  279  ;  a  philosophy  of,  363 

Vitality,  the  generic  idea,  II.  122 
Volition,  the  spring  of  mental  energy 
for  an  ideal  end,  II.  290 

Water,  mode  of  application  in  bap- 
tism, II.  142 

Weakness,  great  Christian,  II.  53 

Will,  the,  weakened  by  sinful  propen- 
sities, I.  280  ;  is  the  entire  being, 
II.  66  ;  manifestations  of,  133 

Words,  gradually  change  their  sig- 
nificance, II.  125  ;  significance  of 
those  of  Jesus,  189 

Works,  study  of  the  Divine,  II.  48  ; 
Christian,  50 

World,  the,  its  rapid  forward  prog- 
ress, II.  313 

Zeal,  Christian,  regards  no  one  as  ir- 
reclaimable, II.  307 


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